fe|i4;;u.ic 

WSix 




MEMORIALS OF OLD BIRMINGHAM. 



FOUNDERS, FBEEHOLDEBS, AND INDWELLEES, 

FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
WITH PAETICULAES AS TO 

%\t Earliest C^xtrtl^ af ^t %tkxm^^xmx 

Built anti ^ntioixictr in ^uglantr, 

FBOU OBIGINAL ANB UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS. 

BY 

J^^TOULMIN SMITH, 

(OT Lincoln's inn, esqfire, baebistek-at-law, 

FELLOW OF THE EOTAL SOCIETY OF NORTHEKN ANTIQUARIES (COPENHAGEN) 



■ Let them be well used ; for tliey are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time." 

Hamlet. 



With Illustrations and Facsimiles. 



BIRMINGHAM: WALTER J. SACKETT, 11, BULL STREET. 
LONDON: JOHN EUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQFAEE. 

1864. 



15471 







JOHN EDWAED TAYLOE, PEINTEE, 
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 



/9 



PREFACE. 



Two of the best books in the English language, on subjects 
of general interest, grew up out of notes upon obscure 
villages. Selborne, whence arose White's charming " i\^rt- 
tural History of Selhorne" lies in a corner of Hampshire: 
AiviBROSDEN, whence arose Kennett's learned " Parochial 
Antiquities,'' lies in Oxfordshire. The reason why these are 
good books, is plain. Each of the authors, instead of deal- 
ing in speculative generalities, took note of what was before 
him, and followed up his observations on these actual things 
of real life as far as he was able. There is a vagueness 
about the consideration of general principles : but when 
general principles are found applied to instances in life and 
action, they remain no longer vague : they become under- 
stood, as an actual part of the world's living existence, or of 
a nation's growth, strength, and well-being. 

It is from this point of view that the following pages have 
been written. Birmingham is not a little village, but a large 
town. It has grown to be a large town during the course of 
many centuries, and through the influence of that tone of 
mind which springs from the character of old English Insti- 
tutions. AVhat is here put together, arising out of what has 
been done in Birmingham, illustrates equally the action of 



iv PEEFACE. 

old English Institutions throughout all England. Though 
its immediate subject is local, therefore, its interest and ap- 
plication are general. The facts here collected touching 
transactions in Wyclifs time, add to the general interest of 
the subject. 

The same is true of the illustrations given of the growth of 
English Surnames. Real men and women are here grouped, 
instead of speculative theories on the origin of names. 

Let it not be supposed that this work pretends to be a 
History of Birmingham, even for the times it touches on. 
In " Traditions of The Old Crown House " and in this work, 
I have illustrated some important events in the early history 
of the Town, not before examined. But a " History of Bir- 
mingham" remains to be written. I have been requested to 
undertake that task; and, if Health and Time permit, I shall, 
in all likelihood, essay it. Renewing now my acknowledg- 
ments for the assistance cordially given me by all (save one) 
with whom I have had occasion to communicate while pre- 
paring this work, I hope that, should I proceed with the 
" History of Birmingham," I may invoke the. help, for that 
work, which so many representatives of old families in the 
town are able to give. 

The Facsimiles at the end of this work are done in photo- 
lithogra'phy^ and have been executed by Messrs. Day and 
Son. 



TABLE OF COXTENTS. 



PAGE 

Tlie Pedigree of Places, and of Persons 5 

The " Mark " of Birmingham f> 

The Spirit of English Institutions U 

The Records of England 10 

" Proper " names H 

Sources of Sui-names ... . 12* 

Changes in spelling, etc I'-l 

" Birmingham," as a Surname 17" 

Endowment of the Priory, a.d. 1285 19' 

Ownership of Land, and its obligations 20 

Meaning of " Mortmain " 22' 

Licence in Mortmain 2.> 

The "Writ " ad quod damnum " 21 

The Prior's Pardon, a.d. 1310 2? 

Birmingham benefactors, A.D. 1285-1310 28; 

What is the King's Power 2'.> 

The feudal system, and English freeholders 3()< 

Classes of old Birmingham freeholders 3".^ 

Founders of Chauntries, a d. 1330, 1347 35 

The Deyseer of Birmingham 2* 

Patronymics '^' 

Foundation in the " Free Chapel," a.d. 1350 4.0 

Piers Plowman and John Wyclif 4-3 

Thcfirst Church of the Eeformation 47 

Choice of the site 4" 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGi: 

The new Churcli begun, A.n. 1375 ,., 51 

Appointing a Chaplain 52 

Agreement between the men of Deritend and the Monks of Tykeford, 

A.D. 1381 53 

The Original Agreement, with Translation 51 

E,obert o' the Grene 61 

Licence in Mortmain for the endowment of the Chaplain of Deritend, 

A.D. 1383 64 

Uncertainties in names 69 

The "Deer-gate-end " ^0 

A new endowment / 3 

Modern " Facilities " 73 

Old free seats and modern pew rents 75 

The Borough of Birmingham, and the Gild of the Holy Cross, a.d. 1392 ... 76 

Affray of Beauchamp against Burdet, a.d. 1431 80 

Illustrations from old Charters, a.d. 1401 to 1589 82 

Lease from Edward Birmingham to John Prety, a.d. 1532 89 

Fate of the " Free Chapel " 90 

Musical Birmingham in a.d. 1552 91 

Tenants and tenancies of the Lord of Birmingham, a.d. 1536-1545 92 

Tenants and tenancies of the Gild of Deritend, a.d. 1547 95 

Tenants and tenancies of the " Free Chapel," a.d. 1547 96 

Tenants of the two Chauntries, a.d. 1547 97 

Tenants and tenancies of the Gild of the Holy Cross, a.d. 1547 97 

Old Streets and their indwellers 98 

The Gild Hall, and its Officers , 100 

Birmingham past, present, and future 101 

Index of Names 103 



MEN AND NAMES 

OP 

OLD BIRMINGHAM. 



The ancestry of a Place is a very different thing from the 
ancestry of a Person. To parade the latter before the 
world in long pedigrees and particulars, is but vanity: to 
unravel the former, or make it better understood, is a work 
of general usefulness. The number of truly great men 
that have lived in the world, is not very large ; but the 
growth and greatness of nations are marked in, and be- 
come best understood by tracing, the growth of the separate 
groups of men who have lived and flourished there from 
time to time. 

The quaintly-gabled houses and narrow streets that cluster 
round the Cathedral of an old but now unenterprising City, 
have a story of their own to tell ; and the rambling rows of 
dwellings that, near the crumbling walls of what was once a 
Strong-hold, formed, not long ago, the " bm-gage tenures " of 
a decaying Borough, have also their own story to tell. Each 
story will be interesting and instructive, though the one will 
be very different from the other. But there are towns that 
have neither Cathedral nor Strong-hold, and have never had 

B 



6 BIKMINGHAM AN ANCIENT "MARK. 

either of these, but which yet have a story to tell that is not 
less interestinsc and not less instructive than either of the 
others. There are towns whose beginnings are hoary with 
age ; which have not been lifted, by factitious accident, into 
a sudden greatness that has remained stationary, or has de- 
cayed away ; but which have gone on, from solid beginnings, 
steadily growing and prospering, and are now among the 
best-known centres of intelligence, industry, and indepen- 
dence, in the country ; and therefore are the best safeguards 
to the State. 

Such a town is Birmingham. The history of its great an- 
tiquity, and of the people who founded it, is told in its very 
name.* It may not have sent forth any man of such indi- 
vidual greatness that his name dazzles the inquirer, and is 



* " 'Ham' is the most sacred, the most intimately felt, of all the words by which 
the dwellings of men are distinguished. It is of such antiquity as to have become 
anomalous in some of its grammatical relations ; and it is the word peculiarly 
devoted in the heathen mythology of the North to denote the earth inhabited 
by men." {'Codex diplomaticus JBvi Saxonici,' tom. iii.. Preface, p. xxviii.) 
" This word [ham], as well as the feeling of which it is the symbol, was brought 
across the ocean by the [North] Teutonic colonists, and it is the most precious of 
all the gifts for which we thank them." (Taylor's ' Words and Places,' p. 131.) 
'' The people who believe in Heroes, originally gods and always god-born, pre- 
serve a remembrance of their ancient deities in the gentile names by which them- 
selves are distinguished, long after the rites they once paid to their divinities 
have fallen into disuse ; and it is this record of beings once hallowed, and a cult 
once offered, which they have bequeathed to us in many of the now unintelligible 
names of the Marks :" — " great family unions, comprising households of various 
degrees of wealth, rank, and authority : some, in direct descent from the com- 
mon ancestors, or from the hero of the particular tribe ; others, more distantly 
connected, through the natural result of increasing population, which multiplies 
indeed the members of the family, but removes them at every step further from 
the original stock ; some, admitted into communion by marriage, others by 
adoption, others even by emancipation : but all recognizing a brotherhood, a 
kinsmanship or sibsceaft ; all standing together as one unit in respect of other 
similar communities ; all governed by the same judges, and led by the same cap- 
tains ; all sharing in the same religious rites ; and all known to themselves 
and to their neighbours by one general name." " The following patronymical 
names I believe to be those of ancient Marks, . . . \_among others] Beor- 
mingas : — Birmingham, Wariv." (Kemble's ' Saxons in England,' Yo\. I. pp. 56, 
61, 449, 457.) 



THE PRESENT, BORN OF THE PAST. / 

likely to divert him from looking at the story of the place 
into wandering among the pedigrees of a person. But the 
Place has a pedigree which it concerns all who are now part 
of it to know. Whatever Birmingham man pretends to de- 
spise this pedigree, is little likely to do any honour to the 
town. 

The science of to-day is founded on the science of yester- 
day, and that of yesterday rests on earlier steps, each trodden 
in its day. And the science of to-day cannot be truly under- 
stood except by tracing those earlier steps. Only the char- 
latan pretends to a sudden revelation of new science. And 
it is the same with human society, in the complex forms of 
it that come before the eye in such an abode of activity as 
Birmingham. Peoples and towns have grown to what they 
are from what they have heen : they owe to the temper and 
spirit and energy, or the lack of these, moving the indwellers 
who have gone before them, the opportunity, or the lack of 
opportunity, that there now is, to show the temper and spirit 
and energy that live within themselves. There has been 
a past ; there has been a growth ; there is yet more growth, 
or else decay, to come. What manner of men they were 
who lived in that past, what their habits were, and what 
were the institutions that they grew up among and took 
their part in, it concerns all to know who would hope that 
the " to come " shall be one of " growth " and not one of 
" decay." He who would speak shame-facedly of his own 
town, or would seek to disavow what he and his fathers have 
owed to it, as a Place having a Pedigree, shows the absence of 
that moral sense and that tone of mind from which alone 
Patriotism springs. 

The use of antiquarian studies is, to make the past live 
again before the eye, and thus to re-animate the links of 
human life. The mere collecting of scraps and cataloguing 
of curiosities, without such an aim, is but time wasted in 

B 2 



8 NAMES AND PLACES. 

the heaping up of dust and rubbish. What 1 now propose 
is, to put together a few links in the chain of the Pedigree 
of Birmino-ham. I take links that have a natural connection 
with one another, and which throw light upon what, while 
it is of general interest to all the town, will be found to have 
also a special personal interest to many. 

Men whose names we know not, can have but a hazy ex- 
istence in the most vivid imagination. There were brave 
men before Agamemnon ; but we know Agamemnon, while 
the others have, for us, no existence. I propose to re-people 
the Birmingham of the olden time ; and to make some of the 
men and women who lived in it known to the men and women 
of to-day, very many of whom are the lineal offspring of 
those old worthies whom I shall now recall. For I am not 
about to fill Birmingham with imaginary people. The men 
and the names that I shall bring up were, every one of them, 
once alive in and a part of Birmingham. They are, all of 
them, among those recorded either in the ancient documents 
that have come to me from my own forefathers, Birmingham 
men, or in what I have myself found while searching among 
the national Records of England. 

There is an intimate connection between Men and their 
Names, in reference to the Places where the same Names are, 
through generation after generation, often found; while the 
circumstances under which the Names have come to be re- 
corded, and the changes which those Names have often 
undergone, bring before us a picture of the manners and in- 
stitutions that prevailed in the days when, from time to time, 
those Men lived and bore those Names. 

The means of knowing the men and the names that 
flourished in past times, are to be found much more fully in 
England than in any other country ; and the reason why this 
is so, is itself very significant. It arises out of the essential 
characteristics of true English Institutions. 



" RESPECTABLE " MEN. 9 

The universal spirit and the living breath of all the Insti- 
tutions known and cherished from the earliest times by the 
Common Law of England, before empirical Acts of Parlia- 
ment became the ever-changing fashion, were the principles, 
that every man is an item in the State ; finds his place in it 
as a member of the community wherein he dwells; and has 
positive duties to fulfil towards it, in that community, as his 
contribution to that common good of which, as an item in the 
State, he enjoys the benefits. The practical basis on which 
those active Institutions rested was, that the men of a neigh- 
bourhood must know their own business better than any one 
else can know it ; and that they will themselves more honestly 
try to do, and will assuredly in the end more successfully do, 
their own business, than any one else can do it. But the con- 
dition, rightly and rigorously enforced so long as constitutional 
principles were duly respected, was, that the business must he 
done : it must not be shirked. Selfishness and slothfulness 
had no prerogatives allowed them, and no worshipful place 
was found for them, under such Institutions. The display of 
these characteristics had to wait for the modern costly devices 
of governing by centralized Bureaus, Commissioners, and In- 
spectors, before it could get even covered with a conventional 
varnish of " respectability." While those Institutions were 
active, every man lived with the habit, as a regular and es- 
sential part of his life, of taking his share in the business of 
his neighbourhood. He grew up with a daily growing know^- 
ledge of his duties and responsibilities ; and passed through 
life in the practice of these as a part of his business which he 
neither sought to shirk, nor would it have been "respectable" 
for him to shirk. It was not necessary, then, for any Jacob to 
write "Letters to respectable men ;"* for true respectability 

* "Puncli" is a periodical that has been able to last through many years in 
London, because it struck the vein, not of low joking, but of genuine humour. 
Several imitations of " Punch " have been started, but none of them have ap- 



10 RECORDS OF ENGLAND. 

r^—laiC'Worthiness, to use the good old word— can only consist 
in the fulfilment, by every man, of his duties to his neighbour, 
his neighbourhood, and his country. The education of men 
was thus true and constant, and not merely superficial and 
delusive. They learned what they themselves would have to 
do, as real items in the State and responsible members of 
their own neighbourhood, from the habitual practice which 
was seen before their eyes throughout their childhood and 
youth and till their own time came. 

Happily, it was an incident to this thoroughly practical 
system of true education, life, and citizenship, that not only 
was the business of each neighbourhood done, and well done, 
but that, in every place where it was done, what was done 
was carefully recorded. In many cases, the names of those 
who were the doers Avere also always recorded. The enor- 
mous mass of these Records that have been kept safely down 
to our own day, cannot be conceived of by those who have paid 
no attention to the subject. It was truly said, more than 
two hundred years ago, that these Records are " the richest 
Pearls, Treasures, and Jewels of the Nation." 
. These Records reach from long before the time of Domes- 
day Book ; Domesday Book is one, and a highly interesting 
one, among them ; but their variety is very great, and their 



proached their original. The " Town Crier" of Birmingham is not an imitation 
of " Punch ; " and it has thoroughly deserved the success which it has achieved. 
It often displays a true humour and an ability surpassing even those of " Punch" 
in its best days. I have no knowledge whatever who may be the writer of a series 
of Papers that have appeared in the " Town Crier," under the title of " Jacob's 
Letters to ' respectable men ';" but those papers are equally excellent in purpose and 
in tone. Under the growing and most grave evil in England, of indifference to 
the duties that every man owes to his neighbourhood, and so to the State, these 
letters can hardly fail to arrest the attention of those Birmingham men and fa- 
thers whose indifference is the result, rather of that spread and increase of uncon- 
scious ignorance which have followed upon the mischievous course of much modern 
legislation, than of the criminal omission, quite equal in guilt to criminal commis- 
sion, which is the quality and only true description of any man's conscious and 
deliberate indifference to public duties. 



"proper" names. 11 

special subjects are innumerable. A few have been printed; 
an incomparably greater mass remains in manuscript. A 
very large and invaluable quantity of them is collected in 
the Public Eecord Office ; but great quantities still remain 
in other Public and also in many Private collections. The 
Rolls of Shires, of Hundreds, of Cities and Boroughs, of 
Courts of Law, of Manor Courts, of Parishes, of Taxation, 
of Inquiries made on special occasions : — all these, and many 
others that it would be tedious to enumerate, tell us the men 
and the names that have lived in England, and have kept the 
inheritance safe for us, through many centuries. In addition 
to these, a very rich mass of Records, giving the like infor- 
mation in other ways, lies hidden in the older class of Deeds 
or " Charters ; " which, being done in the sight of the open 
and regular assembly of those who had come together to 
fulfil their duties to their neighbourhood, have always several 
names recorded at the foot of the Deed or Charter itself, or 
of the indorsed record of the actual delivery of the property, 
as witnesses to the transaction. This class of Records re- 
mains chiefly in private hands. 

In order that the Men of whom I am about to speak may 
not be hidden, instead of being identified, by the Names re- 
corded, it is necessary to say a few words as to hoAv English 
surnames have arisen, and how they may be traced. 

The fore -name, christened, or " christian " name, is the 
" proper " name of a man or woman. Surnames are of 
much later introduction; and, being liable to be changed 
at will, are of inferior authenticity. " It is requisite that 
special heed be taken to the name of baptism ; for that a 
man cannot have two names of baptism, as he may have 
divers surnames. ... A man may have divers names [?'. e. 
surnames] at divers times, but not divers Christian names."* 

* Coke upon Littleton, 3 («). See also Lord Coke's Fourtli Institute, p. 5. 
A very ridiculous attempt was made in 18G2, by a certain Lord Lieutenant of a 



12 SOURCES OF SURNAMES. 

Surnames, adopted at first merely for the sake of further 
distinguishing individual men, only become Family names 
when they have been used as " names of continuance " in the 
same family through more than one generation. 

Surnames became originally added on to men's " proper " 
names, — 

(1) From the place whence they came, or where they 
lived : and of this class there are two distinct kinds ; the one 
{a) being the names of towns or other territorial known 
places ; the other (b) being names taken from the particular 
spot or thing in or near to which the person dwelt, — as a 
homestead, a wood, a river, a well, a church, a moor, a green, 
a tree, etc. etc. 

(2) From an office held, or trade or occupation engaged in. 

(3) From the name of the father, either whole or short- 
ened, and with some addition or change marking the sur- 
name as a patronymic. This sort of surname is much more 
numerous than might, at first sight, be suspected.* 



County, to prevent a gentleman from using his right to change his surname. 
Of course the attempt failed. The subject was treated of by me, with many 
illustrations, in the ' Parliamentary JRememhrancer,' vol. vi. pp. 48-50. 

* So many names, not commonly suspected to have such an origin, spring from 
this source, that it will be instructive to quote the following from Verstegan's 
" Restitution of decayed intelligence " (1634, p. 307), though the list thus given 
is by no means complete. 
" Of the proper name of Alexander, commeth the sirnames of Saunders, and 

Saunderson, 
Of Andrew, commeth Andrews, and Anderson. 
Of Bartholomeiv, commeth Bat, Bats, and Batson. 
Of Christopher, commeth Kit, Kits, and Kitson. 
Of David, commeth Davis, Davison, Dawes, and Datvson. 
Of Edmund, commeth Edmmis, and Edmunson. 
Of Gilbert, commeth Gibson and Gibbons. 

Of Senry, commeth BLarris, BLarison, and as it seemeth Hawlcins. 
Of John, covcyme^ Johnson, JacJcson, and Jenlcinson. 
Of Laurence, commeth Larhin, and Lauson. 
Of Nicholas, commeth Nicols, Nicolson, and Meson. 
Of Peter, commeth Piers, Pierson, Peterson, PerMns, and PerJcinson. 
Of Richard, commeth Bichardson, Dicks, Dicson, Dichins, and Dickinson. 



NAMES AND " ADDITIONS." 13 

(4) From some personal characteristic, either of body, 
mind, or habits. 

(5) From a mere whimsical nickname, the humour of 
which made it become attached to the man and his family. 

Instances of all these sorts of surnames will be found 
among the men and names with which I shall re-people old 
Birmingham. 

In describing men in formal writings, now, it is usual to 
put after the name what is called the "addition"; — that is, 
a statement of the place of dwelling, together with profession, 
trade, or position in life. It will have been seen that sur- 
names themselves were originally, in most cases, nothing else 
than such " additions;" and we shall be able to follow many 
surnames from the time when they thus began, down to 
the time when, the surnames having become fixed in fami- 
lies, a new "addition," in the modern sense, began to be 
used. 

Some people imagine that the insertion of the little par- 
ticle " de " in a name is rather a fine thing, and sounds aris- 
tocratic. There cannot be a greater mistake. In point of 
fact, such an insertion, if it had now any meaning, would 
show that the family is of such mushroom origin that it has 
not yet even acquired any true surname. The " de " is merely 
the Latin for " of," and was, naturally enough, often used in 
old Latin documents, instead of the English word, in order to 
translate the descriptive addition which had not yet become 
a true surname. In many cases, however, the English par- 

Of Robert, commetli Roberts, Robins, Robinson, ^oJA'iMs, otherwise written Hop- 
Tcins, and Hobson. 

Of Roger, commeth Hodges, Hodgeson, Hodgeskins, and HodgeJcinson. 

Of Simon, commeth Simmes, Simpson, SimMns, and Simcocks. 

Of TJiomas, commeth Tomson, Tomlcins, and TomJcinson. 

Of William, commeth Williams, Williamson, Wilson, Wilkes, Wilkins, Wilkin- 
son, Wilcocks, and Bilson. 

Of Walter, commeth Wats, Watson, Watkins, and Watkinson, and hke it is 
that hereof also commeth Atkins and Atkinson." 



14 DESCRIPTIVE PARTICLES. 

tide had become in such common use that a translation of it 
into Latin was not thought of; and sometimes we €nd that 
a man of marked character would not allow his good English 
name to be thus distorted into Latin. 

Intelhgent readers would be rather astonished to find the 
mere translated form " de " substituted for " of " by modern 
writers mentioning such names as Florence of Worcester, 
William of Malmesbury, Gervase of Tilbury, Geoffry of Mon- 
mouth. And the boldest amender of the text of Shakspeare 
would pause before putting " de," in place of the English 
word, in the mouth of Sir AVilliam Lucy when he asks — 

" Where is tlie great Alcides of the field, 
VaHant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury ? 
Created, for his rare success of arms, 
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence, 
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield, 
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton, 
Lord Cromwell of Wingfieid, Lord Furnival of Sheffield, 
The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge ? "* 

The truth is, that the modern use of " de," in any English 
surname, is a piece of very ridiculous and unmeaning affec- 
tation, and betokens only ignorance. No name can have 
become a true family surname till the mere descriptive 
particle, whether English or translated into Latin, has been 
dropped. The particle marks it as a, personal surname. 

It is necessary to bear in mind the changes of shape, as 
well as those of spelling, that names have often undergone, 
while passing from a mere means of descriptive distinguish- 
ment into family surnames. These changes have been very 
Ccipricious, and have been going on through all times, even 
up till our own day. 

For example, there have been two families well known in 
Birmingham and its neighbourhood in modern times, the 
one called "Holte," the other "Attwood." Both names 

* Henry VI., Part I., Act 4, Scene 7. 



CHANGES OF SHAPE AND SPELLING. 15 

sprang from local residence ; the former being descriptive of 
a man who lived near a small wood (and we have also the 
equivalent names " Littlewood " and " Smallwood"), and who 
was therefore called " atte holte ;" the latter being descrip- 
tive of a man who lived near a larger wood, and who was 
therefore called " atte wood.'' In the one case, the particle 
was by-and-by dropped, and the family surname became 
" Holte ;" in the other case, the particle was run into one 
with the latter word of the description, and the family sur- 
name became " Attwood." 

There was, not long ago, a name of old standing in Bir- 
mingham, as " Rustin '" or " Ruston."* In the fourteenth 
year of King Henry the Sixth (a.d. 1436), an appeal of 
murder was brought, at Coventry, by Thomas Smyth, as bro- 
ther and heir of Richard Smyth, against Richard Ruston and 
another man. Ruston tried to get off, by pleading that his 
name was Buxton^ and not Ruston ; to which Thomas Smyth 
replied, that he was as well known by the name of Ruston as 
by that of Ruxton. 

No name ought to be better known or more respected in 
England than -that of the great Lawyer and Patriot, Sir Ed- 
ward Coke, as the name is always now spelled (and who 
is generally called " Lord Coke"). Yet his name was com- 
monly spelled by his contemporaries "Cook," and it appears 
so spelled in Rushworth.f On the other hand, the old War- 

* See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 26. 

t See, for example, the very memorable debate on the Petition of Hight, record- 
ed in Eushworth, I. p. 568 ; in which the brave old man Coke, who had himself 
been Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Chief Justice of England, and 
Lord of the Treasury, besides being incomparably the greatest Lawyer that Eng- 
land ever produced, gave utterance, in words of dignity and firmness never sur- 
passed, and it may be safely said never equalled, within the walls of Parliament, 
to the noble declaration that, — " Sovereign Powee is no Parliamentary word. 
In my opinion it weakens Magna Charta and all our Statutes: for they are ab- 
solute, without any saving of Sovereign Power ; and, shall we now add it, we shall 
weaken the foundation of Law, and then the building must needs fall. Take we 
heed what we yield unto. Magna Charta is such a fellow that he will have no 



16 FULLER ON NAME-CHANGES. 

wickshire name of "Broke," though still lingering in that 
shape in one or two rare instances, has settled down into 
" Brooke."* 

But much greater changes than these have taken place, 
both in the whole shape of some surnames, and in the spell- 
ing of what is meant to stand for the same name. This 
cannot be better illustrated than by quoting the words of old 
Fuller:!— 

" It is necessary to observe^ that Sirnames of families have been 
frequently altered^ some famiKes deposing their old, and assuming 
neic names_, on several occasions ; But chiefly for, 

" 1. Concealment in time of Civil Wars. A name is a kind of face 
whereby one is known; wherefore taking a false name is aVizard where- 
by men disguise themselves ; and that lawfully enough, when not frau- 
dulently done to deceive others, but discreetly in danger, to secure 
themselves. Thus, during the contest ^twixt York and Lancaster, 
Carington of Warwickshire took the name of Smith ; La Blunt the 
name of Gro'ke in Buckinghamshire ; with many others. 

" 2 . For advancement when adopted into an estate ; as Newport the 
name of Hatton in Northamptonshire ; Throckmorton the name of 
Carew at Beddington in Surrey ; as, long before, Westcoat the name 
of Littleton in Staffordshire. 

" Besides, the same sirname, continued, hath been variously altered 
in writing. First, because time teacheth new orthography, altering 
spelling as well as speaking. Secondly, the best Gentlemen anciently 
were not the best Scholars, and (minding matters of more moment) 
were somewhat too incurious in their names. Besides, writers in- 
grossing Deeds, were not over-critical in spelling of names, knowing 
well, where the person appeared the same, the simplicity of that age 
would not fall out about misnomer. 

"Lastly, ancient families have been often removed into several Coun- 
ties, where several writings follow the several pronunciations. . . . 

Sovereign. If we grant this, by implication we give a Sovereign Power above 
all these Laws. We must not admit of it ; and to qualify it is impossible. Let 
us hold our privileges according to the Laio." This was spoken in the House of 
Commons on 17th May, 1628. See, further on, the Note f to p. 29. 

* See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 43. 

t " Worthies," p. 51 (ed. 1662). 



" BIRMINGHAM " AS A SURNAME. 1 7 

'^ Hence it is that the same name hath been so often disguised^ unto 
the staggering of many, who have mistook them for different. . . . 
The name of Roper in Darbyshire, changed from Musard to Ruhra- 
spatJui, Rospcar, Rouspcc, Rooijer, Roper. . . . However such diver- 
sity appeareth in the eye of others, I dare profess that I am dehghted 
with the prospect thereof." 

Other changes in names took place through the habit, so 
common some centuries ago, of writing with contracted marks 
in place of syllables. The places of the letters, too, have 
often got transposed ; just as has been done in such familiar 
instances of words in common use as "bird," instead of 
" brid ; " " ask," instead of " acs." 



The first men and names that will naturally be glanced at 
in connection with Birmingham, are those of the family that 
was, for many centuries, identified with the place, as resident 
manorial Lords of the Borough of Birmingham and Deritend. 
And the history of the surname of this family, itself sup- 
plies us with several interesting lessons as to the identifi- 
cation of surnames, and gives strong caution against coming 
too hastily to conclusions, even from actual and undoubted 
Records. 

It would, at first sight, be naturally concluded that a name 
recorded with prominence as " William " or " Walter " de 
Birmingham^ in an old Latin record, certainly treats of a 
member of this family. But the conclusion would be over- 
hasty. Li the "Patent Roll" of 6 Edward IL (a.d. 1313), 
there is a statement of facts as to an outrage done " at [apud] 
Birmingham," against "Walter of [de] Birmingham." No 
County is named, and it would seem beyond doubt that the 
place meant is Birmingham in Warwickshire. Should it 
happen, however, to the industrious inquirer to turn over 
the " Fine Roll " of two years earlier, he will, if he is 
careful enough, alight upon the record of a grant to " Walter 



18 "little BIRMINGHAM." 

of Birmingham " of the Hmidreds of North and South Er- 
pyngham in the County of Norfolk. And if, his attention 
thus roused, he painfully prosecutes his search, he will find, in 
certain other Eolls, called " Coram rege E-oUs," a complete 
record of the outrage above named, and will learn that it was 
committed at " Little Birimngham " [" apud parvam Bir- 
mingham, ad manerium domini Walteri de Birmingham"], 
in the County of Norfolk. 

On the other hand, the name " de Birmingham " may be 
found given to a man in the old Latin Records, and the 
place meant may be Birmingham in Warwickshire, and yet 
the person have been no sort of relation to the family of the 
manorial Lords. Thus, I have found a record of a pardon 
granted, on the 10th March, 1327, to " Roger the barber of 
Birmingham " [_Rogero le harher de Birm?/nghani], as one 
among other pardons granted after the political disturbances 
of that time. 

Again, no one would dream that the name " Peter Dapifer " 
disguises a distinguished member of the family of the Bir- 
mingham manorial Lords. Yet such is the case. In Ed- 
ward I.'s time, William of Bh-mingham, then manorial Lord, 
in a very important question then raised as to his rights 
within the Manor, himself described an ancestor of his by 
this name of " Peter Dapifer ; " the surname thus given being 
merely descriptive of an office held by Peter of Birmingham, 
who flourished in the twelfth century. 

The same family illustrates the early use, and the gradual 
dropping, of the merely descriptive particle "of" (" de " in 
the Latin Records), and the adoption of the j^lace of abode 
as a true " surname of continuance." To test the estimation 
in which the family that made Birmingham its chief seat 
was held, I have searched the " Patent Rolls " for the earliest 
Commissions that were ever made out in England, after the 
time when two fresh " Conservators of the Peace " had been 



FOUNDERS, IN A.D. 1285. 19 

added, by Act of Parliament, to the ancient Officers wlio ful- 
filled the duties of Conservators of the Peace. I find that 
tlie first Commission thus issued was dated 8th March, 1327 ; 
and in that Commission the only two Conservators named 
for the County of Warwick are " William of Birmingham " 
and ''John Murdak." This very plainly shoAvs the position 
then held by this family in the County. A few years later, 
■when a fresh Act of Parliament had increased the number 
of these Conservators (then first called " Justices of Peace ") 
to five, at the outside, of the " most worthy," I find, again, 
that, in the first Commission issued under the new Act, and 
dated 20th March, 1361, among the five names for WarAvick- 
shire, one is '• Fulco of Birmingham." Twenty-one years 
later I find, in a Commission appointing the Justices of Peace 
for the County of AVarwick, dated 20th December, 1382, the 
two names " Thomas Birmingham " and " John Birmingham." 
So that, while the position of the family was thus plainly 
maintained in the County, the descriptive particle " of " 
(" de " in the Latin) was now at length dropped, and " Bir- 
mingham " became, henceforth, the true family surname. 

By what strange chance it befell that the surname of some 
brandies of the "Birmingham" family became distorted, 
through a process like Avhat is described by Fuller, into 
" Brindejone," 1 have elsewhere shoAvn.* 

In 1285, three persons gave lands for the endoAvment of 
the Hospital of St. Thomas [the Apostle] in Birmingham. 
These Averc, Tho.aias of Maidenhacche, Avho gave ten acres 
of brushwood in Aston ; William of Bik.aiinghaim, Avho also 
gave ten acres of brush Avood in Aston ; and Ranulfii of 
HuGBY, Avho gave three acres of land in Saltley. These facts 
are learned from a document that is found on the Patent 
Poll of the 14 til year of Edward the First. It will be seen 
that the surnames of all these three men are merely descrip- 

* Sec " Traditions of The Old Crown House," ])p. 5)^, 51. 



20 OWNERSHIP OF LAND, 

tive ; the first of them, being taken from a homestead ; the last 
two being taken from the well-known Warwickshire to-wns. 

The record thus remaining on this Patent Roll, is the last 
of a set of three documents that once existed, of which the 
two earlier ones have been lost. Nor is the loss surprising, 
for they were both written on small pieces of parchment, of 
which the biggest was not larger than one of these pages. 
There was a third one, also separate, which had the great 
seal of England attached to it ; and it is of this third one that 
the document above quoted from the Patent Roll is a copy^ 
preserved there as a permanent record of a matter that con- 
cerned the State. 

In many cases, the first two in similar sets of triple records 
remain still in existence. Instances of this will presently 
be given. And in order that these, as well as the document 
which will be next quoted, may be understood, it will be 
well to explain, at once, the origin and meaning of such triple 
records. They give striking illustrations of the strength 
and working of those Institutions of England the character 
of which has already been stated. 

The Common Law of England attached certain conditions 
as inseparable from the holding of Land. Such a thing as 
irresponsible ownership is absolutely unknown to the Common 
Law of England. Not only this : — it is entirely repugnant 
to the whole spirit of that Law. Those who sometimes talk 
of the " burdens on land " show, by the use of such a phrase, 
a strange want of knowledge of the history of English Insti- 
tutions and of English Law. Those Institutions and that 
Law, before modern empirical legislation began, never re- 
cognized a " right " or a " property " without the accompani- 
ment of a corresponding responsibility and obligation. To all 
landed property was inseparably attached what was called, 
from the importance to the whole State of the matters in- 
cluded within it, the trinoda necessitas , a triple obligation 



AND ITS OBLIGATIONS. 21 

without which our fathers were unable to conceive of the 
lightness of any pretence to the possession of land. This 
triple obligation was, Military Service, works for the Defence 
of the realm, and the maintenance of Highways and Bridges. 
But, besides these, which concern the State as a whole, other 
obligations and services were attached to the possession of 
land, which were of first-rate importance towards the work- 
ing of the Institutions of the country. Among these were, 
the obligation to attend the Courts or assemblies where the 
business of the neighbourhood was done, and to take part in 
the business done there ; to serve on juries ; to make the pay- 
ments that became due at certain times and in certain events ; 
and other things, some of which will be afterwards named. 

The land itself was the security that all these obligations 
and services should be faithfully discharged. Fines, and 
sometimes even forfeiture, followed in case of nonfulfilment. 
The original possessor of a large estate often granted part of 
it to another man, able to discharge a proportionable share 
of the obligations and services ; and the latter sometimes 
again granted part of his thus acquired estate to a third man, 
with a proportionable share, again, of the obligations and 
services. So far as the State w^as concerned, the fulfilment 
of the obligations and services was looked for at the hands 
of the original possessor, or his representative, who was 
deemed to hold from the Crown (as representing the State). 
The others held from those, or their representatives, who 
made grants to them, in as many several steps as there had 
been several grants of parts of the original estate ; each 
grantor, or his representative, being called, in the old Latin 
records, a "medius," or link in the chain of responsibility.* 

* As my object, here, is simply to make the origin of mortmain understood, I 
put the above statement in the simplest way, without complicating it with 
either the 32nd Chapter of the Magna Charta of Henry III., the Statute of Quia 
Emptores (18 Edward I.), or any other. None of these afiect the practical prin- 
ciple here touched on, or the consequences that followed from its application. 

C 



22 THE "DEAD HAND." 

It will be seen at a glance, that this very simple but com- 
plete system for ensuring the fulfilment of men's obligations 
and maintaining the institutions of the land in action, would 
be broken in upon if any man were let grant away his land, 
or part of it, to a person or body which, from the nature of its 
existence, could not discharge all or some of the above-named 
inseparable obligations and services ; — unless, indeed, it could 
be clearly shown, that land enough remained to the grantor 
to guarantee the full discharge of the original obligations 
and services by himself. Now Corporate Bodies,* whether 
lay or clerical, and all priests in their corporate capacity as 
holders of particular cure of souls, are, from the nature of 
their existence, unable to fulfil some of these obligations and 
services. Consequently, the Common Law always held that 
grants made to either of these were absolutely void ; because 
they were attempts to grant away land, which can only be 
held on the condition that well-known obligations and ser- 
vices shall be discharged by the living hand of a man, to a 
corporate Body or person which, being unable to discharge 
these obligations, was, in so far as they were concerned, no 
better than a mere dead hand (mort main). 

In some times of national strife, the Law had become 
evaded, and grants had been secretly made " in mort-main" 
that is, to some of these " dead hands." Early therefore in 
the reign of Edward the First (a.d. 1279), the Law was for- 
mally and emphatically set forth again, in a declaratory 
Statute.! After reciting that such grants had been wrong- 
fully made, " without Licence of the Chief Lord of whom 
such Fees p. e. lands held with the attached conditions] be 
holden immediately," and that " thereby the Services that are 

* Corporations may consist of one person or of many. In the former case, sticli 
as the Crown, the Eector of a Parish, etc., it is called a "Corporation Sole ;" in 
the latter, it is more commonly distmguished as a " Corporate Body." 

t I have fully shown the meaning and importance of " declaratory statutes '' 
in my work on " Local Self Government," pp. 155, 254, 256. 



LICENCE IN MOET-MAIN. 23 

due of such fees^ and which from the beginning ivere provided 
for the defence of the Realm, are wrongfally withdraivii,'' this 
statute declares that. " if any person, religious or other,'' holds 
such aliened lands [that is, lands thus granted away], the im- 
mediate lord, whoever he be, may " enter into the land so 
aliened, within a year from the time of the alienation, and 
hold it in fee as an inheritance ;" that, if this immediate lord 
does not thus enter into and take possession of the land, the 
next immediate lord may enter into and take possession of it, 
within half a year after the year's close ; and that the right 
of thus entering and taking possession shall pass on and 
belong to each " medius," one after the other, until, if no 
" medius " enters, the Crown may enter and take possession ; 
not to keep the land in the King's hands, however ; for it is 
declared that he " shall infeofF others therein \_i. e. dispose of 
the land as fees again], on the condition of certain services to 
be done for us for the defence of our kingdom." Thus the 
original purpose of making these " fees," as held " from the 
beginning," would be restored and still kept alive. 

It has been said that, if it could be shown that enough 
land remained to the grantor to insure the discharge of his 
obligations, the grant in mort-main would not be against Law. 
But it was clearly necessary to guard this avenue to mort-main 
very carefully. The only way in which legal proof could be 
given that such a state of things truly existed, was by the 
production of a formal express Licence from the chief lord 
of the " fee," who was the one most directly interested, per- 
sonally or in his representative capacity, in the due discharge 
of those obligations. The Crown, as representing the State, 
having, it has been seen, the ultimate power of entry upon 
lands so granted, no thorough security could be had unless 
such a License had been obtained from the Crown. And 
all Licenses so obtained were recorded on the Patent Eolls, 
beiiig matters that concerned the whole State. These Licenses 

C2 



24 THE WRIT " AD QUOD DAMNUM," 

almost invariably begin, as might be expected, by referring 
to the general Law forbidding mortmain. The document 
of 1285, which has led to these remarks, is such a " Licence 
in Mortmain."* 

Such a Licence in Mortmain could not, however, be granted 
at pleasure, or upon caprice. Fixed and regular preliminary 
steps had to be taken ; and what these were, deserves the 
most careful attention from all who value free institutions, or 
wish to understand them. 

The first of these preliminary steps was, the issue of a Writ 
to the Escheatorf of the County wherein the land lay, 
requiring him to summon a jury of twelve good and law- 
worth | men of the neighbourhood, to inquire whether it 
will be to any one's injury, and, if so, to whose injury, and 
how, if the proposed grant be made. 

This is the Writ called the Writ ^'- ad quod damnum;'' 
and whosoever thoroughly understands the nature of this 
writ, its meaning, working, and eiFect, will understand the 
full spirit of the English Constitution, and will know more 
of what the active motion of that spirit is than he will 
learn from any number of formal treatises thereon. 

Besides the simple inquiry shortly stated above, this jury 
had to inquire in detail, and to record under their seals, what 



* The first words of tliis License contain the clause referring to the general 
law, as above named. It may be interesting to quote the words, which are as 
follows : — " Licet de communi consilio regni nostri providerimus quod non liceat 
viris religiosis seu aliis ingredi feodum alicujus ita quod ad mortuam manum de- 
veniat sine licencia nostra et capitalis domini de quo res ilia immediate tenetur." 

t The Escheator was a County Officer, appointed chiefly for the purpose of 
doing what was necessary towards making Inquiries as to the descent and holding 
of land. 

J " Legales." This is commonly translated " lawful," which is nonsense. 
The real meaning of the word is, the opposite of " outlaw ; " that is, men in the 
full enjoyment of all the rights of freemen which are guaranteed by law. It is a 
most expressive word, thus truly translated. The phrase itself is found, in these 
exact terms, in the ancient Anglo-Saxon charter of the City of London, where 
it stands thus : — " eallra ^gsra laga weor^e," i. e. "tvorth all the laws." 



A CONSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUAKD. 25 

" mediiis," or, if more than one, how many, existed between the 
intending- grantors and the Crown ; and, furthermore, whether 
the lands that would remain to the intending grantors, after 
the grant had been made, would be enough to secure the dis- 
charge of all the services, charges, and obligations of all kinds, 
the discharge of which was the condition under which they 
held their lands. If any of these services or obligations should 
be escaped from, through the granting of any of the land 
in mortmain^ a heavier burden than before would of course 
fall on other persons, and so the country would suffer. The 
closing words of the writ ad quod damnum, put this with 
a very striking clearness. The inquiry was to be made into 
all the particulars enumerated, " So that, hy the grant and 
assignment aforesaid, through default of [the grantors], the 
Country may not he charged or hurdened more than has been 
wont.'"* 

* It will be useful to those who wish, to understand this subject, to have an 
authentic enumeration of some of the usual conditions under which every "fee " 
was held. I give, therefore, the exact words of so much of one of these original 
writs ad quod damnum as marks out what inquiries were to be made ; quoting 
from a writ that was issued for an inquiry in Birmingham in 1350. — " Dili- 
genter inquiratis si sit ad dampnum vel prejudicium nostrum aut aliorum si 
concedamus [licenciam] ; et, si sit ad dampnum vel prejudicium nostrum aut 
aliorum, tunc ad quod dampnum et quod prejudicium nostrum et ad quod 
dampnum et ad quod prejudicium aliorum, et quorum, et qualiter, et quo modo ; 
et de quo vel de quibus teneantur [terrse, etc.], et per quod servicium, et qua- 
liter, et quo modo, et quantum valeant per annum in omnibus exitibus juxta 
verum valorem eorundem : et qui et quot sunt medii inter nos et prefatos Ful- 
conem et Eicardum de messuagio et terra predictis ; et quae terraB et qute 
tenementa eisdem Fulconi et Kicardo remaneant ultra donacionem et assigua- 
cionem predictas, et ubi, et de quo vel de quibus teneantur, et per quod ser- 
vicium, et qualiter, et quo niodo, et quantum valeant per annum in omnibus 
exitibus ; et si terrse et tenementa eisdem F. et B,. remanencia ultra donacionem 
et assignacionem predictas sufficiant ad consuetudines et servicia, tani de pre- 
dictis messtiagiis et terra sic datis, qtiam de aliis terris et tenementis sibl reten- 
tis, dehita, faciendum, et ad omnia alia onera que sustinuerunt et sustinere co»- 
sueverunt — ut in sectis, visibus franci plegii, auxiliis, tallagiis, vigiliis, fiuibus, 
redempcionibus, amerciamentis, contribucionibus, et aliis quibuscunque oneribus 
emergentibus — sustinendum, et quod iidem F. et E. in assisis, juratis, et aliis 
recogniciouibus quibuscunque, poni possint, prout ante donacionem et assigna- 
cionem predictas poni consucverunt : Ita quod Vatria, per donacionem et assigna- 



26 INQUIRY ESSENTIAL. 

Upon this writ there followed the Inquiry. The result of 
that inquiry was embodied in a document wherein were always 
recorded the Names of the good and law-worth Men by whom 
the inquiry had been made. It is much to be regretted 
that the record of the inquiry held before the issue of the 
Licence in Mortmain of 1285 has been lost; for it would 
have given us twelve more names of early Birmingham free- 
holders. 

If this Inquiry showed that the grant would not be to 
any one's injury, and would not cause the evasion of any 
obligations or services, nor the charging and burdening of 
the country more than had been wont, the " Licence in Mort- 
main " was issued. In some rare cases, explained by spe- 
cial circumstances, a conditional License was granted in the 
first instance ; the condition being, that an Inquiry should be 
afterwards duly made, and that the case should be found one 
in which the Licence could be lawfully granted. But such 
cases are so unusual that it would not have been necessary 
to mention them here but that, in a memorable instance 
that will presently be named, this form of Licence happens 
to have been what was asked for and obtained. 

It follows from all this, that, if any land had been given 
away in mortmain to a corporate body or person, and had 
been appropriated by that body or person, without the issue 
of the writ ad quod damnum and due inquiry made there- 
upon, there was a distinct breach of the Law, and the land 
was liable to be seized by the Crown at any time. The only 
way to get rid of this danger was, for those who held the 
land to obtain from the Crown a " Pardon." 

Now it happened in Birmingham that, at the end of the 
thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries, the 
example that had been set by Thomas of Maidenhacche, 

cionempredictas, in ipsorum Fulconis et Sicardi defectum, magis solito noii oneretur 
seu gravetur." 



A prior's "pardon." 27 

William of Birmingham, and Ranulph of Rugby, was fol- 
lowed by several neighbours, who added their contributions 
towards the endowment of the Priory of St. Thomas the 
Apostle. Most of these endowments were, individually, not 
large ; and it was this fact, doubtless, that led to the over- 
sight of the Wiit ad quod damnum, in each of the separate 
cases. But, put altogether, the amount of these endowments 
was large, and the risk of forfeiture became dangerous to 
the Priory. So, just twenty-five years after the Licence in 
Mortmain which has been already quoted, a " Pardon " was 
obtained by the Prior of Birmingham, which is recorded on 
the Patent Roll of the year 1310, and which enumerates 
both the givers and the gifts. 

From this Pardon I now take the names of those Birminsf- 
ham men and women who thus, nearly six hundred years 
ago, gave houses and lands and income out of their own sub- 
stance, towards the founding and endowing of the Priory of 
Birmingham. At the same time, I state what it was that 
each gave, in order that the sort of property then held in the 
town may be better understood. The reader must, through- 
outj keep in mind the enormous difference in the value 
of the same nominal amounts of money between that day 
and this. 

In this and the other cases that will follow, I give the 
spellings of the surnames, whether merely descriptive or 
having become true " surnames of continuance," as I find 
them, inserting the modern form of the word between 
brackets where any doubt seems likely to arise. The mere 
descriptive 'particles I give in their English forms, where they 
have been translated into Latin in the original.* When 
such a particle appears in its English form in tlie original 

* The Latin tongue not possessing what we now mean by the gramiriatical 
" article," the degraded forms of ille, ilia, are used to express the masculine 
and feminine of " the." Thus we find " le," " la," " de Ic," " de la." 



28 GIVERS AND GIFTS. 

record, I put [sic] after the surname. The description of the 
gifts made I translate in each case, and use the modern spelling. 

GIVERS, ANB GIFTS MADE, TO THE PEIOEY 
OF ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE, IN BIEMINGHAM, 

Between a.d. 1285 astd a.d. 1310. 

John op Someey^ seven acres and one rood of land, in Bordesley. 

William op BukmingehaMj twenty -two acres of land and half an 
acre of meadow, in Birmingham. 

Roger the moul, four acres of land in the same town. 

Geoppry op Copton, one acre of land in the same town. 

William Coebyn, half an acre of land in the same town. 

Nicholas m the dale, one acre of land in the same town. 

EoGER OP Makyntotst, twelve-pcnce of rent in the same town. 

Roger atte gate, five-pence of rent in the same town. 

William Aygnelet, six-pence of rent in the same town. 

William Jori, six -pence of rent in the same town. 

Alexander the mercer, six-pence of rent in the same town. 

William op Dodeston, six-pence of rent in the same town. 

Roger the moul, aforesaid, one acre of land and six-pence of rent 
in Duddeston and Birmingham. 

Hamon Cissor [? Carver], two shillings of rent in Birmingham. 

John op Pakynton, four-pence of rent in the same town. 

Roger Preust, two-pence of rent in the same town. 

Richard Lumbard, two-pence of rent in the same town. 

Edith, who was the wife of Warin Jori, one penny of rent in the 
same town. 

Ralph Kokeyn, six-pence of rent in the same town. 

Alexander the kene, two-pence of rent in the same town. 

Joan Bawe, a cottage in the same town. 

William Tycito, a cottage in the same town. 

Richard atte nasshe [sic], a cottage in the same town. 

John op Clodeshalb, a cottage in the same town. 

Richard Fokeram, a cottage in the same town. 

Clarice the daye, a cottage in the same town. 

John the carpenteEj a cottage in the same town. 

William Aygnelet, a cottage in the same town. 

Cristiana the raggede, a cottage in the same town. 



THE LAW AND THE KING. 29 

Nicholas m the dale^ one acre and a half of land in Duddeston. 

William op the shawe^ one messuage and half a " virgate* ^' of 
land in. the same town. 

Ralph Wombestrong, foui' acres and one rood of land in Saltley. 

Roger op Little Barre, two acres and one rood of land in the 
same town. 

Simon op Rokeby [Rugby], half an acre of land in the same town. 

Peter atte broke [sic], four-pence of rent in Erdington. 

Thomas of Maydenhache, ten acres of laud in Astou. 

This " Pardon " bears the date of Berwick-upon-Tweed, on 
the 26th day of December, in the fourth year of Edward the 
Second (1310). With that carefulness to keep within the 
law which so strikingly marks the proceedings found stated 
in our early records, before any one had dreamed of using the 
phrase " the King can do no wrong " in the preposterously 
inverted and unmeaning sense in which it is now often used, 
the operation of this Pardon is limited, by its o"wn express 
terms, to so far only as the King's power in the matter 
actually reached (" quantum in nobis est "). No pretence of 
*' Prerogative Power " is set up.f 

Two things will strike the reader upon looking at these 
names and gifts -,— firsts the great number of freeholders that 
this list, even taken alone, shows that there then were in Bir- 
mingham ; second^ how few of the surnames had yet become 
true family surnames, or are other than merely descriptive. 

* The " virgate" is the same as what is often found under the name of " yard- 
land." It is a variable quantity, ranging, in different places, from fifteen acres 
up to even forty. I have explained the word in " The Parish," p. 512, note 
{second edition). What is meant in this case seems to be, the garden and pad- 
dock adjoining the messuage. 

t See the Note t before, p. 15, for Lord Coke's own language. On a subject 
that is of so much constitutional importance, it is well to give some further quo- 
tations, the spirit of which cannot be mistaken. " Though no manner of person 
or cause be unsubject unto the King's Power, yet so is the power of the King 
over all, and in all limited, that unto all his proceedings the Law itself is a rule. 
The axioms of our regal government are these, Lexfacit reffem.— the King's grant 
of any favour made contrary to the Law is void : Rex nihil potest nisi quod jure 
potest. . . What power the King hath, he hath it by Law ; the bounds and 



30 THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, 

As to the first point, it is so common a thing for political and 
social writers and talkers to assume a wholly imaginary state 
of things, as having existed under what they call by the hazy 
name of " the feudal system," that when a reader comes, for 
the first time, across a true picture of the past, such as has 
now been quoted, and others that will presently follow, he 
will naturally be puzzled. Writers of some pretensions even 
tell their readers that the Laws relating to land in England 
have been framed, and are upheld "for the express pur- 
pose of keeping the land in the hands of a few proprietors; 
of depriving the peasants and small shop-keepers of any part 
of it, and of the influence which its possession confers ; and 
of supporting a great proprietor class."* Such statements are 
best answered by looking at the facts themselves, as found 
by the actual records of the times, and as incidentally illus- 
trated by earlier writers, speaking of their own times. 

Sir John Fortescue was Lord Chief Justice of England, in 
the time of Henry the Sixth. His celebrated work on the 

limits of it are known. Tlie entire community givetL. general order, by Law, tow 
all things publicly are to be done : and tbe King, as tbe Head thereof, the 
highest in authority over all, causeth, according to the same Law, every particu- 
lar to be framed and ordered thereby. The whole Body Politic maketh Laws, 
which Laws gave power unto the King." (Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," 
pp. 446, 465 : ed. 1705). " He can do no wrong, saith the old maxim : that is, 
he can do nothing against the Law ; nor is anything to be judged for his benefit 
that is not warranted by Law." (Lord Somers's " Security of Englishmen's Lives," 
p. 66, ed. 1681). And Bracton, centuries earlier, had written, "Hex habet su- 
periorem, Deum: item Legem, per quam factus est Kex. . . Potestas itaque sua 
juris est, et non injurise ;" and much more to the same effect. There is in Mat- 
thew Paris (p. 355, ed. 1684), a picturesque account of the marriage of Henry 
III., and of the carrying before him of the sword " Curtana," as a symbol of the 
constitutional limits to the power of the Crown. 

It is very necessary to caE attention to these things, at a time when books pre- 
tending to teach what the constitution of England is, actually lay it down that the 
Crown is above the Law, and when Members of Parliament listen in subservient 
silence to Ministers who are continually sheltering their own misdoings under 
the pretence of the " Prerogative of the Crown." 

* This passage actually occurs in Mr. Kay's work on " The Social Condition 
of Europe," published in 1850. The same sort of thing is being constantly 
assumed as a real statement of the present state of facts. 



AND ENGLISH FREEHOLDERS. 31 

Laws of England, is written in the form of a dialogue between 
himself and the young Prince, which is represented to have 
been carried on during the exile of both in France. Ex- 
plaining to the Prince how it is that, in England, indepen- 
dent Juries are able to be put in action in whatever case 
• arises in any part of the country, Fortescue says: — "The 
same country [England] is so filled and replenished with 
landed men, that therein so small a little hamlet cannot he 
found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an esquire, or such 
a householder as is there commonly called a Franklin, en- 
riched with great possessions ; and also other freeholders^ and 
many yeomen having sufficient estate to make a jury in form 
aforementioned. . . . After this manner, oh ! mighty prince, 
are none other realms of the world disposed and inhabited. 
For, though there be in them men of great power, of great 
riches and possessions, yet they dwell not one nigh to another, 
as such great men do in England ; neither so many inheritors 
and possessors of land are elsewhere as in England^* 

It cannot be necessary to do more than refer to what is 
said on the same subject by Lord Bacon, in his Essay " Of 
the true greatness of Kingdoms and Estates." 

As to the Names of these old Birmingham freeholders, 
out of the thirty-three that are found in this " Pardon," not 
more than eleven, at the outside, had then become true sur- 
names, the rest remaining merely descriptive. Those eleven 
are, Corbyn, Aygnelet, Jori,f CissorC?), Preust, Lumbard, 
Kokeyn,f Bawe, Tycito,t Fokeram, and Wombestrong. 

It is not my present purpose to go into the origin of every 
name that is given. Space will not allow me to do more 
than call attention to the manner in which diff'erent names 

* I adopt liere tlie translation published in 1672, except where the sense of 
the Latin original does not seem fully given. 

t These names certainly, and probably others in this list, are found elsewhere 
with diiferent spellings, but representing much the same sounds. See the extract 
from Fuller, before, p. 16. 



32. HOW TO DESCEIBE A MAN. 

illustrate the growth of surnames in England, and to the va- 
riety of forms in which some of these have come down to us. 

Of the above eleven names, Corhyn remains to this day 
in that shape : Aygnelet seems preserved to us under the 
several shapes of the place Inkleys, and the names Ingley^ 
Ingall, Aylet, and Ault^ all known in Birmingham : Jori seems 
known to us under the disguise of Jolly : Cissor, Preust, and 
Lumbard, had probably not long lost their descriptive par- 
ticle ; the first being in fact the Latin word for " Carver " 
(Scissor) ; and perhaps it ought to have been thus set down 
in the list ; but, having no particle before it in the original, 
I have left it in the dignity of a true surname.* Preust 
is clearly " the Priest," and Lumhard as clearly the " man 
from Lombardy." Bawe not improbably remains among us 
under the varying forms Barrow and Barr. 

Of the descriptive names that seem taken from territorial 
places, there are those from Somery^ Birmingham^ Cofton, 
Malcynton, Buddeston, Pakington, Clodeshale, Little Barr, and 
Bughy. Of those taken from particular spots or things, there 
are, Nicholas in the dale. Bog er atte gate, Bichard atte nasshe^ 
William of the shawe, Peter atte broke, and Thomas of mayden- 
hache. Of those taken from offices, trades, or occupations, 
there are, Alexander the mercer, John the carpenter, and pro- 
bably, as before said, Hamon Cissor. There is not, among 
the number, one patronymic. But of names taken from 
personal characteristics, there are, Alexander the Tcene, Clarice 
the daye, and Cristiana the raggede. Boger the moid (mole) 
is a nickname. 

Some of these names deserve closer remark. 

The name Nicholas in the dale recalls the time when 

" Every slieplierd told his tale 
Under the hawthorn, in the dale." 

It is long since the hawthorn tree spread its green 

* It stands on the same footing with " Dapifer : " sec before, p. IS. 



DALES, WOODS, AND BROOKS. 33 

boughs, and scented the air with its sweet May-flowers, in 
the place whence this man took his name, and since the 
shepherd gathered his flock around him there, at sunrise, 
and told their number over, that he might be surely able to 
report, at even-song, that the tale was right.* But the old 
name by which the spot was known more than five hundred 
and fifty years ago in Birmingham, still lingers in " Dale 
End," and I shall show that there formerly stood there a 
" Dale Hall." The surname " Dale," the descriptive particle 
being dropped, remains a Birmingham surname. 

The name Boger atte gate is, in the Latin, " Rogerus ad 
portam." He perhaps lived near to the gate whence " Der- 
yat-end " got its name.f The names "Gates" and "Yates" 
still flourish, while " atte gate " has, in some parts of Eng- 
land, though I think not in Birmingham, drifted into the 
surname " Agate." Bi chard atte nasshe gives an instructive 
illustration of how surnames get shape. This man or his 
father lived near an ash tree. The letter " n " was slipped 
in after " atte " and before " ash," for mere ease in sounding 
the words, just as we use " an " instead of " a " before words 
beginning with a vowel. So the descriptive name became 
" atte nasshe," according to the spelling of the time ; and, 
when the particle was dropped, it became " Nash," which 
remains a not uncommon surname. " Shaw " being another 
name for a wood, we have " of the shawe," in addition to 
" atte holte " and " atte wood." As in the case of " Holte," 
the particle has here been dropped, and the name is now 
known as " Shaw." In the same way, " atte broke " has be- 
come " Brooke " and " Brooks." But " Attenbrook " also re- 
mains still known as an English surname. 

* One who was a better artist than linguist, not long ago made the odd 
mistake of treating those two lines of Milton's ' L' Allegro ' as if the allusion 
were to a love-tale whispered by a shepherd to a maid, instead of being to the 
regular duty of the shepherd in his daily life. 

t See " Traditions of the Old Crown House," p. 45, note. See also on this 
subject, Is'otes hereaftei", on pages 71, 64. 



34 MEN AND WOMEN OF QUALITY. 

The surnames " Mercer," " Carpenter," " Keen," and 
"Kean," will be immediately recognized as sprung from 
others in this list, the particle, as in other cases, having 
been dropped. And the name " Mole " is a respectable 
modern name, sprung, no doubt, from an ancestor whose 
shortness of sight led to his getting the nickname of " the 
mole." 

The two names Clarice the daye., and Cristiana tlie raggede^ 
give curious examples of surnames that have sprung from 
personal characteristics. In the old Northern tongue, there 
is the word " da," and in the closely kindred Anglo-Saxon 
there is the word " daag." Both have much the same original 
meaning, which is that of unreadiness of mind or dress. The 
original words and meaning are both still living among us, in 
the words " daze " and " daggle." A person is " dazed," that is, 
bewildered; or " daggles," that is, shows untidiness in dress. 
" Day " is a common and respectable Birmingham name now ; 
but the particle has been dropped, and with it, no doubt, 
the qualities whence came the original descriptive name. 
The name of Cristiana the raggede needs no explanation. In 
modern times, the surnames " Wragge " and " Eagg " have 
dropped not only the foregoing particle but the last syllable, 
and so hardly remind us of the origin of the name. 

It is worth notice here, that names derived from perso- 
nal characteristics and fancied resemblances to qualities of 
animals, were very common among all the Northern races. 
They often seem whimsical enough, but were soberly used 
as means of distinguishment. I may quote the first lines of 
part of an old Northern saga to illustrate this common habit. 
Some of the surnames here stated run quite parallel with 
Clarice the daye, Cristiana the raggede, and Boger the moid. 

" There was a man," says the saga, " named Thokd, who 
married Fkidgerd, daughter of Thorek the idle. Thord 
was son of Biarni buttertub, grandson of Biarni ironsides, 



FOUNDERS OF CHAUNTRIES. 35 

son of Ragnar hairy-breeches [Lod-brok]. Thokd and 
Fridgerd had a son named Snorri, who married Thorhild 
the partridge, daughter of Thord the loud. They had 
a son named Tiiord horsehead." 

The affah' of the " Pardon " which has supplied us with 
these rehcs of the Men and Names of Okl Birmingham, seems 
to have made it thoroughly known to the freeholders of the 
town, that it was unfitting to make any endowment without 
going through the regular course which the Law required. 
Less than twenty years after its date, Walter of Clodes- 
hale, no doubt a son of the John of Clodeshale named in 
the Pardon, set about founding a Chauntry and endowing a 
priest to perform daily service for the souls of himself and 
Agnes his wife in the old Church of St. Martin. This was 
one of two Chauntries established in Birmingham by the same 
family, and which were always afterwards known as the j^rs^ 
and second Chauntries. They were treated together by the 
Commissioners in Edward the Sixth's time, and will be most 
conveniently so treated now. 

The fo'st of these two Chauntries was founded in 1330 by 
Walter of Clodeshale : the second was founded in 1347 by 
Richard of Clodeshale. The terms of the former founda- 
tion were, as usual, for the performance of daily service for 
the souls of the founder, his wife, and their ancestors. But 
the terms of the latter foundation were peculiar. Richard 
of Clodeshale seems not to have thought it a sufficiently 
profitable investment to take precautions for the state of his 
soul hereafter : he wished to be comfortable in this world, as 
well as to smoothen his course through purgatory. So the 
terms of his endowment are, for the performance of daily 
service " for the well-being of Richard himself and AHce his 
wife, and for the souls of Richard and Alice when they have 
gone from this light" \^pro saliibn statu ipsius Bicardi et 



86 GROUPS OF FREEHOLDERS. 

AUcie uxoris ejus, et animahus eorum Bicardi et Alicie cum ah 
hac luce emigraverunt]. 

The Writ ad quod damnum for the foundation of the first 
chauntry, was issued on the 19th February, 1330 ; and the 
Inquiry under it was held on the Eriday next after the feast 
of Saint Mark the Evangelist (25th April) in the same year. 
The names of the freeholders who formed the jury for this 
inquiry were, — William Verite; — John Corbyn; — John atte 
HOLT [sic']; — John the porter; — William of Neuport; — 
Thomas Mareschal ; — Thomas Corbyn ; — John of Colsull ; 
— Adam of Packewode ; — John the deyseer of Birmingham ; 
— John the fychelere; — and, William the mey. 

The Writ ad giiod dajnnimi for the foundation of the se- 
C0716? chauntry was issued on 27th April, 1347; and the In- 
quiry under it was held on 26 th June in the same year. The 
names of the freeholders who formed the Jury for this 
inquiry were, — Henry Morys; — John son of Gilbert; — 
Geoffry Morys ; — Egbert Page ; — Thomas son of John ; — 
William the kynges; — William Colemon ; — John Parys; — 
William son of Margery ; — John Burgeys ; — Henry Cole- 
mon; — and, John Erewes. 

It is remarkable that, while the list of 1330 repeats only 
one, the list of 1347 does not repeat a single one, of the 
names of 1310 ; nor does the list of 1347 repeat a single one 
of the names of 1330. So that, within less than foruy 
years, we get the names of more than fifty freeholders of 
Birmingham, either actually living at the same time, or within 
the immediate memory of those then living. And of course 
this is by no means a complete list of all who were then free- 
holders in the town. 

These two lists give some remarkable fresh illustrations of 
the origin and growth of surnames. Out of the twelve jury- 
men of 1330, only four (two of these with the same name) 
bore true family surnames ; namely, Verite, Corbyn (twice, 



THE DEYSEER OF BIRMINGHAM. 37 

and also found in 1310), and Mareschal. But the list of 1347 
gives us eight (though two pairs of them are the same) out 
of the twelve names, in which the descriptive particle had 
been dropped, and which had so become true family sur- 
names ; namely, Morys (twice), Page^ Parys, Burgeys^ Cole- 
mon (twice), and Frewes. In the list of 1330, there are four 
descriptive surnames taken from places, namely John atte 
holt, William of Newport, John of Coleshill, and Adam of 
Packwood. The list of 1347 does not contain a single name 
of this class. The list of 1330 contains also four other names 
belonging to classes of which not a single example is to be 
found in the list of 1347 ; namely, names descriptive of office, 
occupation, or personal characteristics. These names are 
Joh7i the porter, John the deyseer of Birmingham, John the 
fychelere, and William the mey. 

The last three of these names claim special remark. We 
have had ^'the harher of Binningham;''* but there was a 
special reason, in that case, why the place of abode should be 
given, besides the occupation. The same reason does not 
apply in the case of a list of men who were necessarily all 
Birmingham men. It follows, that John the deyseer must 
have held some office of special trust that was identified with 
the town, and the title of which was " the deyseer." But 
what was a "deyseer"? It is not easy to answer this ques- 
tion with certainty. Tyrwhitt was puzzled to understand the 
meaning of the word " dey " in Chaucer's line, — 

" She was as it were a maner dey."t 

But the true meaning of that word cannot apply here.j It 
seems to me most likely, though I would speak cautiously, 
that the word " deyseer" was a local name given, at least in 
Warwickshire, to the man appointed to collect the Clergy 

* Before, p. 18. t TheNonnes Prestes Tale. 

X "Deigia" and "deigr" mean, in the old Northern tongue, dampness, damp. 
Hence our word " daii'y." The " dey" kept the dairy. 

D 



38 GREETING THE " MET." 

tax. Formerly, when subsidies were granted by the Com- 
mons to the Crown, the Clergy granted a separate subsidy. 
"Fifteenths," ''Tenths," "Half-tenths," were names given 
to such subsidies. The Clergy-grant was well known as a 
" disme," — quite a distinct thing, it must be remembered, 
from the " tythe" payable to the Clergy. Collectors of 
these "dismes" were appointed, and were recognized by Par- 
liament.* In the Hundred Eolls of Edward the First, I 
find " Eoger the disser of Coventry." This name plainly cor- 
responds, with but a slight difi"erence in the spelling, to "John 
the deyseer of Birmingham."! 

I cannot be certain that '-'■the fychelere" is only a disguise 
for " the fisher " (the old word for " fisherman"), though there 
can hardly be much doubt about it. But of the meaning of 
" the mey," there is, happily, little room for uncertainty. It 
is the pure old Anglo-Saxon word "mseg," meaning near 
friend, or relation, and seems to have been often used as dis- 
tinctive when a man was adopted into another family, as, for 
instance, in the case of a son-in-law. The name is very often 
found in the old Hundred Rolls and other records. I have 
little doubt that the word " mate," by which working men, 
both in town and country, are in the habit of addressing one 
another when they are engaged on any work together, and 
know not each other's actual names, is the relic of the same 
genial word and meaning, j 

There remain four names to be noticed, which are found 
in the list of jurymen of 1347, belonging to a class of which 
there is not a single example to be found in either the 
Pardon of 1310 or the jury list of 1330. These are John 

* Two illustrations will enable any one to verify the facts. See Eolls of Par- 
liament 8 Edward II. (a.d. 1314), Pet. No. 113 ; E. P. 5 Henry V. (a.d. 1417), 
Pet. No. vii. 

t A remarkable entry on the Parliament Eoll of 10 Henry YI., suggests 
a possibility that " deyseer" (" disser") may mean " Tythingman." 

J In the Anglo-Saxon, there is the word "' maca," obviously from the same root. 



PATRONYMICS. 39 

son of Gilbert, Thomas son of John, William the Kinges, 
and William son of Margery. All these are patronymics. 
Most likely Gilberts, Gilbertson, or Gibson, was the name by 
which John was called among familiars, though the name, 
when translated into Latin, was put in a more formal shape. 
Thomas would, in the same way, be called Johnson. The 
Kinges means the son of a man who had got to be called 
" the King," from the conspicuousness with which he had 
played the part of " King " in some of the public games and 
shows which were then both universal and frequent.* There 
was, indeed, one of these games that was known by the ex- 
press name of " The King-game," and we sometimes find 
actual record kept of the persons who filled the part of 
"King" and "Queen" on the occasion.! The addition of 
the letter "s" to a father's name, has the same significance as 
the addition of the word " son." 

The most curious of these four patronymics, however, — if 
the fact does not make it necessary to coin the new word 
matronymic — is, perhaps, William son of Margery. It is not 
often that a freeholder has thus got a descriptive name from 
the mother's, instead of from the father's, side. Margery 
was, it will presently be seen, a favourite woman's name at 
that time; and the existence of such names as Megson, Meggs, 
and Gerison, shows that the descendants of Margaret's son 
have been many and wide spread. 

Little more than three years had passed since Richard 
OF Clodeshale had endowed the second Chauntry in old St. 
Martin's Church, when an endowment on a larger scale took 
place in another Church in the town which was then much 
resorted to, though all trace, even of its existence, is now 
gone. This church is called, in old records, the "Free Chapel " 

* I have giren some account of these games in " The Paris//," pp. 49G-50G, 
515, 516, 521, 522, etc. {second edition), 
t See an example quoted in the " The Parish," p. 515. 

D 2 



40 THE "FREE CHAPEL" OF 1S50. 

of Birmingham ; and it deserves in itself to be remembered 
with an attention greater than a mere Chaiintry, though the 
Chauntry endowment no doubt helped to sustain its impor- 
tance in the town. 

On 3rd July, 1350, a Writ ad quod damnum was issued to 
John of Windsoe, Escheator of Warwickshire, to hold an In- 
quiry touching grants proposed to be made by Fulco of Bir- 
mingham and Richard the spenser, of messuages and lands 
in Aston and Birmingham, for the support of a Chaplain who 
should celebrate divine service daily for the souls of William 
the mercer and Margery his wife, of Robert the spen- 
ser and Isabella his wife, of Henry of Caldewell and 
Margery his wife, and of their ancestors, at the altar of the 
blessed Mary in the Church of the Hospital of Saint Thomas 
the Martyr in Birmingham.* 

It is noteworthy that all the six names mentioned in this 
writ are descriptive only ; three being taken from territorial 
places, and three (two of them being the same) from the 
calling or office of the bearer. Fulco of Birmingham has 
been named before : f William the mercer was perhaps the 
son of Alexander the mercer."^ 

Upon this Writ a jury was summoned, and an Inquiry 
was made at Birmingham on the 19th July of the same year. 
The names of the Jurymen who made this inquiry are as 
follows : — Richard of Shirynton ; — Richard atte chapelle 
[sic']', — Thomas of Wytton; — John Coleyn; — William of 
the neowehay ; — john michel ; — richard judden ; — ■ 
Thomas Michel; — John Kempe ; — Thomas of Stretton; — 
John Philip; — and, John the raggede. 

All these names are new, except the descriptive surname 
of John the raggede. The bearer of this name was probably 
a son of Christiana the raggede.^ Six out of the twelve 

* It is from this writ that the quotation is taken that is given in the note to p. 25. 
t P. 19. X See before, p. 28. § See before, pp. 28, 34. 



THE NEW HEY. 41 

names (two being the same) are " suraames of continuance," 
while six are merely descriptive names ; all the latter, except 
John the raggede, being taken from places, either territorial 
or special. These are so obvious that two only among them 
need any remark. 

Thomas of Stretton was no doubt some relation to the 
Rohert Stretton who was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield 
from 1359 to 1385, and who was one of the parties to a very 
important transaction that will presently be mentioned, 
William of the neowehay bears a doubly descriptive name. 
" Neowehay " is a drawling way of spelling " new-hey ; " that 
is, " new inclosure." He or his father dwelt at some place 
that had been freshly made into an enclosed homestead- 
There are, near Birmingham, more than one place still 
bearing the name "Hey." Each of these must have been, 
at some time, a " new hey." One of them I have already 
mentioned.* From one of them, no doubt, this William 
got his descriptive name. By-and-by, the two particles were 
dropped, and the name "Newey" has ever since been some- 
what common in Birmingham. 

The name John Philip probably records an ancestor of 
him who, three centuries and a half later, gave the land 
whereon to build the church now called St. Philip's Church. 
The name is found spelled, however, in several ways. 

It may be not uninteresting to add, that this Jury reported 
that one house and thirty acres of land in Aston, being part 
of what was proposed to be granted for the purpose before- 
named, were held of the Lady of Aston at three shillings a 
year, and that the Lady of Aston held them of John Bote- 
TOURTE ; the said Lady and John being the " medii " between 
the King and Fulco and Richard, the intending endowers 
and that another house and seventy acres of land in Bir- 
mingham, being the remainder of what was proposed to be 

* " Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 43, 55 ; and see after, p. 96. 



42 RELIGION AND HUMANITY. 

granted, were held of John of Sutton at six shillings a year ; 
this John of Sutton being the " medius " between the king 
and FuLCO and Eichard. The jury goes on to describe these 
houses and land, and their actual value ; and adds, that other 
lands and rents in Birmingham, and elsewhere in the County 
of Warwick, remained to Fulco and Eichard, beyond the 
proposed endowment, and were held of John of Sutton by 
Military Service ; and that those remaining possessions were 
enough to satisfy all obligations, " so that, by the gift and 
assignment aforesaid, through default of Fulco and Eichard, 
the Country will not be charged or burdened more than has 
been wont."* 

The issue of the Licence in Mortmain in this case was 
delayed for some months ; but it was done at last, on the 
12th February, 1351. 

I pass on now to a transaction very different in its kind 
from endowments made towards giving ease to souls in pur- 
gatory. But I cannot leave such endowments without the 
remark that, whatever form of faith a man may hold, there 
is something that must touch every heart not dead to human 
sympathies, when these traces are met with of the anxious 
piety of those who, putting faith in " the sacred prevalence 
of prayer" on behalf of the souls of their no longer living 
kindred, took much pains and gave great gifts to ensure that 
such prayers should be constant. 

In the time of Edward the Third, however, men's minds in 
England began to be deeply stirred by the flagrant abuses 
that had grown up in the Church establishment, through the 
wide-spread perversion of Church endowments to personal 
selfishness, instead of those endowments being devoted to 
the Public ends for which alone the endowers gave them. 
Thoughtful and sincere men raised up their voices in the de- 
mand for an earnest reality of practical religious teaching. 

* See before, p. 25. 



PIERS PLOWMAN AND JOHN WYCLIF. 43 

The gross remissness, ignorance, and misdoings of the clergy, 
had been the subject of often repeated complaints in Parlia- 
ment.* A native English poet now arose, who boldly de- 
nounced, in nervous language, and, though wrapped in pictu- 
resque allegories, in the plainest manner, the short-comings 
and mis-teachings of the clergy, and the mischiefs done by 
the monastic orders; and who declared, with a wonderful 
simplicity and undistorted truthfulness, what the reality of 
Christian teaching should be. And what Piers Plowman 
was thus saying in a tongue that all the People could under- 
stand, and in a manner that was most attractive to them, and 
in verses that soon became familiar through the land as 
household words, was soon after more scholastically, but not 
less energetically said, and repeated in many shapes and 
through many years, by one who was indeed a Priest, but 
who, himself undertaking the great work of translating the 
Bible into English, denounced the lives and mis-teachings of 
the priesthood, and began a new system of earnest teaching, 
with a strength and purpose and unremitting vigour that have 
made even Roman Catholic historians confess that John 

* Some illustrations of tliese I produced, when giving evidence before the Select 
Committee of the House of Lords on Church Eates in 1860 ; and they are printed 
with the Eeport presented to the House by that Committee. The evidence which 
I then gave, having been referred to in subsequent debates in Parliament, as well 
as elsewhere, will not be unknown to some of my readers, and is easily accessible 
to all. I will now, therefore, only shortly refer to the Statute of Carlisle(A.D. 
1306), the Statute of Provisors (a.d. 1350), the Eolls of Parliament of 20 Edward 
III. (a.d. 1346), and the Eolls of Parliament of 50 Edward III. (a.d. 1376), for 
striking proofs and illustrations, not only of the strong public feeling that was 
warm and growing through all that time upon this subject, but of the very clear 
and precise knowledge that men had as to the true purposes, now often misunder- 
stood, of Church foundations and endowments. It will be found brought vividly 
before the reader, that whereas Churches were founded " to inform the People of 
the Law of God, and to make hospitalities, alms, and other works of charity, m 
the places where the Churches were founded," the Parishioners had been left to 
" perish in body and soul," and were obliged to " cease sending their children to 
school ; " and, in short, that " Holy Church is more hurt by such bad Christians 
than by all the Jews and Saracens in the world." No wonder " Eeformers" 
arose, and that, when they arose, they were eagerly listened to. 



44 PARISH CHURCHES. 

Wyclif was the father of the Reformation in England.* In 
the midst of all this, — but, as I have elsewhere shown,f in 
immediate connection with it, — a case that arose out of the 
non-fulfilment of a parson's duty, was brought before the 
Courts of Law ; the judgment given in which left no one able 
any longer to pretend that Parish Churches were raised for 
the sake of the parsons ; and which put at rest for ever any 
halting doubts as to whether it is within the spirit, and con- 
formable to the practice, of the Common Law of England, 
that the inhabitants of any parish should, of their own mo- 
tion and by their own consent alone, repair the Church of 
their parish to make it fit for their own use.J 

Piers Plowman's Vision was written about 1362, and soon 

* "A new teacher appeared, who boldly rejected many of the tenets which his 
countrymen had hitherto revered as sacred. ... In proof of his doctrines he 
appealed to the Scriptures, and thus made his disciples judges between him and 
the bishops. • . .Wyclif made a new translation ; multiplied the copies with the 
aid of transcribers ; and, by his 'poor priests,' recommended it to the perusal of 
their hearers. In their hands it became an engine of wonderful power. . . .The 
new doctrines insensibly acquired partisans and protectors in the higher classes ; 
a spirit of inquiry was generated ; and the seeds were sown of that religious revo- 
lution which, in little more than a century, astonished and convulsed the nations 
of Europe." (Lingard's History of England, vol. iii. pp. 265, 310 ; fifth edition.) 

Some contemporary verses tell us that, 

" Assumpsit Wyclyf multas hsereses violando 
Catbolicamque fidem, dogmata falsa serens." 
('Political Poems,' etc., edited by Thomas Wright, vol. i. p. 458.) 

Mr. Shirley, the editor of the lately published volume entitled " Fasciculi Ziza- 
niorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif, cum tritico," teUs us that the preface to 
Wyclif 's book ' De dominio divino ' seems " the true epoch of the beginning of 
the English Heformation." And the same learned writer fixes the date of the 
publication of that work as, " at the latest, in 1368." He believes it to have been 
a year or two earlier. 

t See Evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of Lords, in 
1860, as before mentioned. 

X I have printed a translation of this remarkable case in " The Parish," p. 
584 (second edition). The most important parts of it are also given in my Evi- 
dence before the Lords, in 1860, already mentioned. The before-named com- 
plaints made in Parliament of the misconduct of the clergy, expressly include 
the charge that they " sufier the noble buildings, in old times there made, wholly 
to fall to decay," though the original endowments were meant to supply means 
for reparation of the churches, as well as for the support of the parsons. 



PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 45 

reached and long kept an extraordinary popularity. John 
Wyclif was writing, preaching, and teaching, from about 
1361 to 1384. The case which put the rights of Parishion- 
ers in theii- Parish Church beyond a doubt, was adjudged 
in 1370. 

The spirit of the practical Christianity that Piers Plowman 
taught, may be judged of by the descriptions that he gives of 
Mercy and Charity : — 

"Goddes Mercy is moore 
Than alle hise otliere werkes ; 
And al the wikkednesse in this world 
That man myghte werche or thynke, 
Nis na-moore to the Mercy of God 
Than in the see a gleede [hot cinder]."* 

And again, 

" Charite ne chaffareth noght, 
Ne chalangeth, ne craveth. 

He is glad with alle glade, 
And good til alle wikkede. 
And leveth [liketh] and loveth alle 
That oure Lord made." f 

Piers Plowman very plainly told " prelates and preestes" 
that hypocrisy is not religion. Whatsoever it is, says he, — 

" That ye prechen to the peple, 
Preve it on yowselve, 
And dooth it in dede : 
It shal drawe you to goode. 
If ye leven as ye leren [teach] us 
We shul leve yow the bettre."]; 



* Passus quintus de visione. 

t Passus decimus quintus. It is impossible not to be reminded, by these words, 
of Coleridge's fine lines in " The Ancient Mariner," — 

" He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 
For the great God who loveth us 
He made and loveth all." 
X Piers Plowman is written in the old English alliterative rime : that i?, the 
cadences of time in which the verses are composed, are made to linger on the 



46 EAELY REFORMERS. 

The author of Piers Plowman's Vision is understood to 
have been a Monk of Malvern. John Wyclif found a sup- 
porter in John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was the 
owner of Kenilworth Castle, and a Justice of the Peace for 
Warwickshire ; while Lutterworth, where Wyclif lived from 
the beginning of 1374 till his death in the last days of 1384, 
is very near to the borders of Warwickshire. The teachings 
of both Piers Plowman and Wyclif would, then, necessarily 
be well known in the market-town of Birmingham and the 
neighbourhood. 

Now it happens that Deritend, though within the Lordship 
of Birmingham,* lies within the Parish of Aston. In the 
same Parish, and adjoining Deritend, is Bordesley ; which, 
though a less important and less populous place than Deri- 
tend, had from of old a separate Court Leet and Court 
Baron of its own, distinct from those of Aston. For secular 
purposes then, both these places had long, at the time I am 
speaking of, had an existence quite independent of Aston. 
Aston itself was so dependent on Birmingham that the 
Parish is called, by two such authorities as Spelman and 
Camden, " Birmingham's Aston." 

Whether Sir Richard Shobenhale (to give him his full 
clerical title), who, towards the latter end of the fourteenth 
century, happened to be Vicar of Aston, was a Parish Priest 
of the sort that Piers Plowman and Wyclif so vigorously 
denounced, cannot perhaps be now known with certainty. 
But this much is certain ; — that the inhabitants of Deritend 
and Bordesley had become moved by the spirit that breathed 



ear by tte repetition of tlie initial letter of prominent words. This is usually 
done by tbe initial letter of two leading words in tbe first line of a couplet, 
being the same as the initial letter of one leading word of the second line of the 
couplet. The last quotation above given contains three couplets, each of which 
fulfils this very ancient English rule of rime. 

* " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 45, note. See also both the ancient 
deeds of which facsimiles are given in that work. 



THE FIRST CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION. 47 

through the teachings of Piers Plowman and Wyclif, and 
had grown thoroughly dissatisfied with being dependent, for 
their religious services, upon Aston Church and its Vicar. 
It is easy to understand the feelings that waxed strong and 
stronger on this subject, and the settled wish that arose to 
have an independent Chui'ch of their own within their o-vvn 
borders ; feelings and a wish that were helped to ripen into 
determination by that important Judgment of Law, which 
put beyond doubt the right of parishioners to repair their 
Parish Church for their own use. It seemed to the men of 
energetic minds who then dwelt in Deritend, to be only 
applying the same principle one step further if they should 
build an entirely new Church for themselves. And this, 
accordingly, the men of Deritend and Bordesley, joining 
together for the purpose, set about to do. The Chiu'ch 
which they thus built was the first actually new built Church 
of which there is any record, as the fruit of the teachings 
of the true fathers of the Reformation in England. The 
building of this Church becomes therefore a memorable 
event in the history of England, and of the Reformation in 
Europe. It is a specially memorable event in the history of 
Birmingham. 

In those dim times of early England whereof we leam 
from the " venerable Bede," we know that the foundation of 
Churches was going on, and was urged as a duty incumbent 
upon those who held large landed possessions.* The for- 
mation of "Parishes" must have become generally settled 
between that time and the close of the tenth century ; for, 
while we find in Domesday Book the record of new Churches 
having been then lately built, we find the further fact that 
such new Churches had already then begun to be called 
" Chapels." Numerous examples of Churches thus bearing 

* See, for example, Hist. Eccles. lib. 5, capa. iv. v.; Epist. ad Ecgbert (pages 
306, 307, of Smith's edition of Bede). 



48 THE ADVOWSON. 

ihe name of " Chapels," though independent of any Parish 
Church, might be given from later records. They seem 
to have been generally founded, as Parish Churches had 
been, by single, or a few, landowners. There are, however, 
some instances that approach more nearly to the manner of 
foundation of the Church built in Wyclif 's time in Deri- 
tend ; though none seems to be known that is of so early a 
date, and of which the history is able to be recovered in so 
clear a manner, as the Church that has been now known for 
nearly five hundred years as the " Chapel of St. John the 
Baptist of Deritend."* 

When a wealthy landowner had built a Church at his own 
cost and on his own land, for the use of his tenants and his 
neighbours, it seemed to follow, as a matter of course, that 
he should himself appoint the person who was to celebrate 
divine service there. And it would follow, on the same 
principle, that when the inhabitants of a place themselves 
built a Church, at their own cost and for their own use, they 
should themselves appoint the person who was to celebrate 
divine service in their Church. This was the view which 
the men of Deritend and Bordesley took, and which helped 
them in their determination to build a new Church for them- 
selves. It was only thus that they could secure the services 
of one of Wyclif 's own followers. 

The choice of a site for the new Church seems to have 
been determined by circumstances that are well worthy of, 

* There is a curious account, in tlie Domesday Book of Suffolk (fo. 281 (b)), 
of a Chapel built by four brothers, on their own land, because the Parish Church 
woxild not hold all the Parishioners. The interesting document given in Bishop 
Kennett's " Parochial Antiquities " (under year 1428) is of fifty years later date 
than Deritend Chapel, besides differing materially from the document that wiU 
presently be given. It is, however, probably the nearest illustrative comparison 
that can be taken. There are several pages in Kennett, following p. 584 of the 
edition of 1695 (Vol. II. p. 262 of edition of 1818), which treat of the foundation 
and incidents of " Chapels," and the relations usually kept up between these 
and the Mother Church. 



CHOICE OF A SITE. 49 

attention. A knowledge of them may often help to explain 
the shape of plots of ground, and the position of old build- 
ings, near to the highways of old market-towns and cities. 

The age of The Old Crown House has been already shown.* 
Even were that house not still standing, it could be shown 
that the part of Deritend whereon the oldest dwellings stood, 
is that which lies on the left-hand side of the road going 
out from Birmingham towards Warwick or Coventry ; the 
side on which one who came into the town, as old Leland did, 
from the Warwick or Coventry road, would observe that 
"the water ran down on the right hand." It was because 
the river Rea ran along that side, that it became the earliest 
seat of homesteads, from which the water was thus easily 
reached. A path to the water, both from The Old Crown 
House and from the House that was once the property of the 
last Lord of Birmingham, is, as I have already stated, particu- 
larly mentioned in ancient deeds relating to those two houses.f 

The opposite side of the road in Deritend, seems to have 
remained long without houses. In 1285 a Statute was 
passed, called the Statute of Winchester, which required 
that, where there were no houses, — " Highways leading from 
one market-town to another shall be enlarged, where woods 
hedges or dykes be, so that there be neither dyke, underwood, 
nor bush, whereby a man may lurk to do hurt, within two 
hundred feet of the side of the way ; and so that this statute 
shall not extend unto oaks nor unto timber trees, where it is 
clear underneath. . . . And if perchance a park be near to 
a highway, it is needful that the lord of the park set back 
his park so far that there shall be a breadth of two hundred 
feet from the highway." There are the strongest grounds 
for believing that the latter was the state of things on this 
side of the Deritend highway. But whether it were so or not, 

* " Traditions of The Old Crown House." 

t " Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 6, 39. 



50 PLEASANT PLACES OF OLD. 

makes, it will be seen, no difference as to the existence of the 
open strip of ground two hundred feet in breadth. 

On looking, upon Bradford's plan, at the space occupied, 
more than a hundred years ago, by the houses, with their 
gardens, on the side of the street opposite to The Old Crown 
House, it will be seen that the breadth, all along that side, 
from the river to just opposite The Old Crown House, is 
remarkably equal ; and measurement shows this breadth to 
be just two hundred feet. From opposite The Old Crown 
House to Bordesley, it widens a little, by encroachment on 
the street, but the inner line remains the same.* No such 
regularity is to be found on the other side of the street. 
The conclusion is inevitable, that, at the time when the 
Statute of Winchester became Law, there were no houses 
on this side. It was an open space, with oaks and other 
timber trees giving shade and beauty to what, in spring time 
and in summer, would be the pleasant resort of the young 
for games and of the old for pastime. The same space would 
remain still thus open at the time when the inhabitants 
determined upon building a new Church for themselves. A 
better site they could not have ; and accordingly they chose 
nearly the middle point of this open ground to build their 
new Church upon. Having ample room, the new Church 
was, according to custom, set straight with the points of the 
compass, but not with the line of the road. 

As the river Rea now runs, and as this street is laid down 
upon modern maps, the new Church, commonly called 
" Deritend Chapel," will not seem to have been put so near 
this middle point as in fact it was ; for the course of the E,ea 
has been more than once changed. About one-fourth part 
of the length of Deritend lies on the Birmingham side of 
where the stream now runs. There cannot be the least 

* In " Traditions of The Old Crown House," a copy is given of so much of 
Bradford's Plan as takes in these parts and shows these facts. 



THE NEW CHURCH BEGUN. 51 

doubt that the Rea once ran precisely upon, and in fact 
formed, the boundary. The course of the river was however 
changed, long ages ago, to suit the uses of an ancient Mill 
that will be named hereafter ; and it was again changed, after 
1784, under an Act passed in that year, "for rebuilding the 
Bridge over the river Rea, at the Town of Birmingham, called 
Deritend Bridge, and widening the avenues thereto ; and for 
widening and varying the course of the said river near the said 
Bridge, and making a weir and other necessary works to pre- 
vent the lower part of the said town from being overflowed." 
Under the same Act, some alterations were also made in the 
street near to Deritend Chapel; including some of the 
buildings that had, after the Chapel was built, grown up on 
that side of the street, and even the wall of the Chapel-yard 
and some of the yard itself; from which latter, thirty-nine 
square yards were taken, and thrown into the street. The 
present Deritend Chapel thus stands considerably closer to 
the street than did the Chapel first built there.* 

The new Church was begun, according to trustworthy 
tradition, in the year 1375.f Facing the title-page of this 
volume, I give an authentic view of the Church thus built. 
But this view is from an original sketch of the Church made 
while the Rea was more distant, on that side of the street, 
than it now is, and before the original building was pulled 
down, in 1735, to give way to the larger but much less archi- 
tecturally attractive present Chapel of St. John's, Deritend. 
No one can look at this view of the old Chapel, and not feel 
with how much truth it was that Leland said of the street 
which he passed along, on the one side of which he saw 

* The present chapel itself covers more ground than the old one did ; and 
the enlargement took place partly on the side next the street. This fact, added 
to what is above stated, will make the chapel seem to have shifted its place, 
relatively to surrounding objects. 

t The documents that will presently be given, prove that it was finished before 
1381. So that this tradition cannot be far wrong. 



52 FRESH DIFFICULTIES. 

The Old Crown House, and on the other this " propper 
Chappell," and between them, on each side, the over-sha- 
dowing elms, that this was indeed " a pretty street as ever I 
entered."* 

But it was not enough to build a Church. Divine Service 
must be celebrated there. And here our good fathers, the 
men of Deritend and Bordesley, were met by fresh difficul- 
ties. Neither Piers PloAvman nor John Wyclif was in much 
favour among many of the beneficed clergy. The Refor- 
mation of religious teaching and of priestly life which those 
illustrious fathers of the English Reformation taught, was by 
no means agreeable to the most active rulers of the Church. 
And the men of Deritend and Bordesley had to deal with 
rather a formidable array of those whom Piers Plowman and 
Wyclif denounced. First, there was the Vicar of Aston him- 
self; who could not but feel that his authority was much 
weakened by the building, without his consent asked or 
given, and still more by the use, of a new Church within the 
borders of his Parish. Next, the Rectorial appropriator 
of the Parish was itself an ecclesiastical corporation, and 
one seated afar off; namely, the Monks of Tykeford. It 
happened, indeed, that the Vicars of Aston and the Monks 
of Tykeford were not always on the best of terms ; and per- 
haps this was fortunate, at this time, for the men of Deritend 
and Bordesley. But there still remained the Bishop of the 

* It lias been hinted to me, that I may be misunderstood when reading, as I 
have uniformly done in "Traditions of The Old Crown House," Leland's 
phrase "a pretty street or ever I entered" (as it is found in Hearne's printed 
edition of his Itinerary) with the particle " as " instead of "or." It can only 
be a narrow and uninformed pedantry that can misunderstand this reading. 
Explanation seemed to me unnecessary. In well-known instances, the phrase 
" or ever " is occasionally used to express, solemnly, a lapse of time (e. g. Eccle- 
siastes, xii. 6) ; that is, simply instead of " ere ever." But Leland is speaking 
oi place, not time. He could not be so ignorant as not to know that Deritend 
was part of Birmingham. Undoubtedly he here used " or ever" (if he wrote it 
" or ") in the sense of " as ever ;" a sense in which the phrase is still colloquially 
used in many parts of England. 



THE FINAL "AGREEMENT." 53 

diocese; and at this time Robert Strettcn, whcm I take 
to have been a Birmingham man,* was Bishop of Coventry 
and Lichfield. It is not easy to judge how far he would be 
disposed to take part with the Vicar, or how far his sym- 
pathies would lie with the townsmen. He probably cared 
little, however, for the Monks of Tykeford.f 

The negotiations seem to have been tedious ; but men 
who are in earnest, and who are in the right, will generally 
carry the day if they quietly but firmly persevere. So it 
happened with our good fathers who had built themselves 
this new Church in Deritend. They at length succeeded 
in getting all they wanted. They did not object to let the 
Vicar's dignity be saved by the insertion of a preamble of 
specious reasons. They did not cut down the Vicar's in- 
come ; — reserving to themselves, in return, the right of mar- 
riage and burial in Aston Church. But they secured to 
themselves and their children, for ever, the right of having 
divine service celebrated in the Church ivliich they had them- 
selves aJready built, and by a ChaijJain of their own appoint- 
ment, absolutely independent of the Vicar of Aston. | 

In the year 1381, a formal Agreement in writing was en- 
tered into: to which the parties were, the Monks of Tykeford; 
the Vicar of Aston himself; the Patron of Aston Church; 
the Lord of the Manor of Birmingham^ ; thirteen good men 

* See before, p. 41. 

t The Monks of Tykeford enjoyed some special favour. I have found a 
Papal Bull, promulgated and confirmed on their behalf, upon the Patent Eolls. 
Cases concerning them occur in the old Year Books. They were a settlement 
in England in connection with a greater monastery at Tours ; which the old 
records that tell of them call by the one shortened word " Marmonstre." 

X It will be seen, by the document that follows, that the Chaplain of Deritend 
has never been bound even to make the personal submission to the Vicar of 
Aston, wliich the incumbent of Pidiugton was bound to make to the Vicar of 
Ambrosden (" ohedientiam debit am faciet") according to the terms of the original 
document in that case ; and on which personal submission the good Bishop Ken- 
nett insisted so strongly. See " Parochial Antiquities," pp. 583, 599, 001. 

§ The Lord of the Manor was party to this remarkable document, because of 

E 



54 THE MEN OF DEllITEND, 

and true of the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley ; and 
the Bishop of the diocese. The original of this venerable 
document, unique in its date and kind among the records of 
Eno-lish Church foundations, lies before me as I write *: and 



AGEEEMENT TOFCHING THE CHOICE OF A CHAPLAIN 

TO OFEICIATE IN THE NEWLY-BUILT CHAPEL OF 

DEEITEND, a.d. 1381. 

Hec est composico '\ ordinaco facta inr Priorem T: mo- 
nachos Priorat} bte Marie de Tykeford jux^ Nupertepaynell 
Lincoln dioc^ ecctiam pochialem de Aston jux^ Birmynch'^m 
Coventr T: Lich dioc^ in ppos usus optinentes / monachos 
majoris mon Turonefi ad Eomana ecctiam nullo medio pti- 
nentf subject^ jur til T: suporietate AfebtiT: Con^''^ dci majoris 

his responsibility to the tenants of the Manor of Birminu;ham in Deritend. This 
responsibihty, too often lost sight of by modern political writers on the feudal 
system, is thus expressed by Glanville, who wrote in the time of Henry the Se- 
cond : — " Miitua quidem debet esse dominii et homagii fidelitatis connexio ; ita 
quod quantum homo debet domino ex homaqio, tantum ilU debet dominus ex 
dominio." (Lib. ix. cap. 4.) The Lord was thus bound to uphold all the rights of 
the tenants within his Manor. His seal was a strong assurance in such a re- 
markable case as the present. 

* It gives a striking illustration of the superficialness of the higher sort of 
what is called " education" in our day, to find that, on 26th August, 1863, Sir 
William Armstrong, President of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science, made, in his "inaugural address," the following statement : — "While so 
much facility is given to mental communication by new measures and new inven- 
tions, the fundamental art of expressing thought by written symbols, remains as 
imperfect now as it has been for centuries past. It seems strange that, while we 
actually possess a system of shorthand by which words can be recorded as ra- 
pidly as they can be spoken, we should persist in writing a slow and laborious 
longhand. It is intelligible that grown up persons who have acquired the pre- 
sent conventional art of vrriting, should be reluctant to incur the labour of mas- 
tering a better sj^-stem ; but there can be no reason why the rising generation 
should not be instructed in a method of writing more in accordance with the ac- 
tivity of mind which now prevails. Even without going so far as to adopt for 
ordinary use a complete system of stenography, which it is not easy to acquire, 
we might greatly abridge the time and labour of writing, by the recognition of a 
few simple signs to express the syllables which are of most frequent occurrence 
our language. Our words are in a great measure made up of such syllables as 
com. con, tion, ing, able, ain, ent, est, ance, etc. These we are now obliged to 



AND THE MONKS OF TYKEFORD. 55 

it is a document of so much historical interest that, while I 
give a facsimile of it at the end of tliis work, I also put in 
type here the exact terms of it, together with an English 
translation. 

TEANSLATION. 

This is an Agreement and Ordinance made between the 
Prior and Monks of the Priory of the blessed Mary 
OF Tykeford nigh Newport-Pagnell in the Diocese of Lincoln, 
appropriators of the Parish Church of Aston nigh Birming- 
ham in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield (who are subject 
Monks of Marmonstre, which belongs to the Poman Church 
with none between ; the rights however and superiority per- 
taining in this behalf to the Abbot and Convent of the said 

write out over and over again, as if time and labour expended in what may be 
termed visual speech, were of no importance." 

Not only did no member of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science correct a statement so marked, but it was immediately followed up, in 
the " Times" Newspaper, by several letters in the same style, under the head 
" Shorthand and Longhand ;" until, in a note inserted in that Paper on 11th Sept., 
I pointed out that the "longhand" is modern, and that the use of signs to ex- 
press syllables was, in fact, the old practice. The document that is given above 
affords an example of the system of short writing that was formerly in use. But 
it was used in printed books as well as in writing. 

Two hundred years ago, no English gentleman could have fallen into the strange 
mistake that was thus common to Sir W. Armstrong and his hearers in 1863. 
Greek and Latin were not then thought studies that could, alone, make any man 
a " scholar," or any man's education complete. " Education " is nothing better 
than a mischievous sham, if it does not teach Englishmen to understand the na- 
ture and the worth of the records of their own country — the stamped remains of 
the past life which we are continuing — at least as carefully as it teaches the relics 
of Greece and Eome. 

It ought to be stated that, of the document that now follows, two translations 
have been made before, and copies of both are (by the kindness of Mr. J. AV. 
Whateley and of Mr. William Hodgetts) in my possession. One seems to havj 
been made in 1821, when a local Act of Parliament was being sought ; the other 
(perhaps only a varied copy of the former) was inserted in a " Case," stated for 
the opinion of Dr. Jenner, in 1828, after the death of Mr. Darwall, who had then 
lately died, having long been Chaplain of Deritend. Neither of these translations 
seeming to me rightly to represent the original, I venture to give here a fresh 
one, together with the opportunity, now given for the first time, of a comparison 
with the original. 



56 THE MEN OF DERITEND, 

moil qui nunc sunt vel imposrum erunt in hac pte compe- 
tentib3 exceptf 1 in omib} semp salvis / et cliim Eicin 
Shobenhale ppetuu vicariu ejusclfh ecciie cle Aston / ac dmn 
Johem Buttort militem p)dci Priorat} de Tykeford fundatorem 
ex pte una / et drim Joliem de Birmynch^m militem dilm de 
villa sive hamelett vocat Dury3ateliende jux'' pJdict villa de 
Birmynch^m situat / ac Galfridii Boteler / Robtum Grene / 
Jotiem Smyth / A¥illin Jeffe / Thoma Holdon / Willin Coup / 
Willfn Dod / Ad^'m Bene / Riciii Bene / Simone Huwet / Ricni 
de Broke / Robtum fflaumvile / T; Thoma Chattok / de p)dictf 
vitl sive hamelettf de Dury3atehende T; Bordesley / ac ejusdin 
ecctie de Aston poch / n'^non ceros oiiies T: singtos pochnos 
in dictf vitt sive hamelettf de Dury3atehende T: Bordesley 
intiitantf ex pte alia / de consensu T: assensu veil pris diii 
Robti dei gra Coventr '\ Lych Epi ejusdm ecctie de Aston 
diocesani /. In pJmis qd pjdci pochi in dictf vitl sive hame- 
lettf de Dury3atehende '\ Bordesley inhitantf heredes T; eo^ 
successores ppr fluvio^ nundacones T: alia^ via^ discrimina 
inr pJdcam ecctiam pochialem de Aston T: dictf vitl sive 
hamelettf de Dury3atehende T: Bordesley longe distantes 
sepi3 T: maxie yemali tempe imminencia T: contingencia T: ne 
infantes ipas villas sive hamelettf de Dury3atehende T: 
Bordesley inliitantf absq, solempnitate Baptismatf pire con- 
tingat imppetuii llebunt T: inveniant sumptib3 eo^ ppis unu 
Capllm ydoneu Deo "I pochis vitl sive hamelett de Dury3ate- 
hende T: Bordesley pJdictf inhitantf divina officia ministratur 
T: defunctur in q^'d^m Capella in honore Sci Johis Baptiste ibm 
infra dmniu de Dury3atehende p)dict de novo constructa 
contie et ppetue celebratur / . Itin inhitantes pJdci heant unu 



AND THE JIONKS OF TYKEFORD. 57 

Marmonstre which now are or liereafter shall be, being re- 
served and in all things always saved ) ; and Sir Richard 
Shobenhale, perpetual Vicar of the same Church of Aston ; 
and Sir John Buttort, Knight, founder of the aforesaid Priory 
of Tykeford ; of the one part : And Sir John of Birmingham, 
Knight, Lord of the town or hamlet called Deritend standing 
nigh the aforesaid town of Birmingham ; and Geoffry 
BuTELER, Robert o' the Grene, John Smy^th, William 
Jeffe, Thomas Holdon, William Couper, William Dod, 
Adam Bene, Richard Bene, Simon Huwet, Richard of 
Broke, Robert Flaumvile, and Thomas Chattok, of the 
aforesaid towns or hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley, and 
parishioners of the same church of Aston, and also all and 
every other the parishioners dwelling in the said towns or 
hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley, of the other part: With the 
consent and assent of the venerable father Sir Robert, by the 
grace of God Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, diocesan 
of the same church of Aston Firstly^ that the aforesaid 
parishioners dwelling in the said towns or hamlets of Deri- 
tend and Bordesley, their heirs and successors, — because of 
the floodings of the streams, and the obstructions often, and 
especially in winter time, threatening and happening in the 
other ways between the aforesaid Parish church of Aston 
and the said far off towns or hamlets of Deritend and 
Bordesley, — and lest it should befall that the infants dwell- 
ing in the said towns or hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley 
for want of the rite of Baptism might perish for ever, — shall 
have and may appoint, at their oavu charges, one Chap- 
lain fit to administer and discharge, before God and the pa- 
rishioners dwelling in the aforesaid towns or hamlets of 
Deritend and Bordesley, divine services; which are always 
and for ever henceforth to be celebrated in a certain Chapel 
in honor of Saint John the Baptist there lately built within 
the Lordship of Deritend aforesaid. Moreover, the inhabi- 



58 THE MEN OF DERITEND, 

Baptis?iu in eaclni Capella ad Baptizand omes et singtos 
pocfeno^ pueros dicta^ villa^ sive hameletta^ de Dury3ate- 
hande 1 Bordesley infiitantf ac Purificacones matm eo^dni 
pueo^ p ipm Capttm qui in dca Capella p tempe fuiit cele- 
bratur / ac ecia p)dci pochi ofnes et singti dicta^ vitt sive 
hamelettf de Dury3atehende 1 Bordesley infra pochiam de 
Aston p)dict inhitantf visitabunt dcam ecctiam sua pochialem 
de Aston in festf Pasche Natal dni Ofiii Sco^ Dedicaconis 
ejusdm ecctie de Aston Sco^ Petri T: Pauli px post fin nati- 
vitatf Sci Joliis Bap tie 1 Purificaconis bte Marie V Jginis ibm 
deo ac dee ecctie de Aston tanq.,^ matrici T: pocli ecctie eo^ 
reddendo 1 solvendo oiniodas decimas majores % minores ac 
oblacones sicut ab antiquo tempe fecerunt eidfri ecctie ut 
tenenf / Itiii si p)dci pocfti de Dury3atehende ^ Bordesley 
essent infirmi vel aliquis eo^ infirmus qd no possunt laborar 
vel in articto mortf qd pjdict vicar qui p tempe fuiit aut 
ejus Captlus pocft non possunt bono tempe T: optuno venir 
tales pochos sic infirmos visitandi T: sacra ministrandi tunc 
p)fat3 Captls dee Capelle confessiones pJdco^ taliu pocfeno^ 
audiat T: eos absolvat sacramenta '\ sacramentalia si necesse 
fujit eis in forma jurf ministret sic qd pJdci pochi de Dury- 
3atehende T: Bordesley dco vicario de Aston qui p tempe fuJ it 
vel Captlo suo pochiali semel in anno confiteanf ut de jure 
tenenf / Sic q^ de omib3 T: singtis supius noiatf T: expjssatf 
nullii jOjudiciu eidin matric ecctie de Aston nee pjfatf Priori 
T; monachis aut eo^ successorib3 vel pJdict dno Rico vicar 
aut successorib3 suis in futur genlef / In quo^ oini T: singto^ 
fidem T: testiom ptes pJdict sigilla sua alrnatim p)sentib3 



AND THE MOKKS OF TYKEFOHD. 59 

tants aforesaid may have a Font in the same Chapel, for 
baptizing all and every the children of the parishioners of 
the said towns or hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley dwelling 
there ; and Churchings of the mothers of the same children 
shall be solemnized by the Chaplain of the said Chapel for 
the time being. And also all and every the aforesaid parish- 
ioners of the said towns or hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley 
dwelling within the parish of Aston aforesaid, shall visit their 
said parish church of Aston on the feasts of Easter, Christ- 
mas, All Saints, the Dedication of the same church of Aston, 
Saints Peter and Paul next after the feast of the Nativity of 
Saint John the Baptist, and the Purification of the blessed 
Virgin Mary ; there rendering and paying to God and to the 
said Church of Aston, as to their mother and parochial 
church, all kind of tythes, greater and lesser, and oblations 
like as from old time they have done to the same church, as 
they are bound to do. Moreover, if the aforesaid parishioners 
of Deritend and Bordesley should be so ailing, or any of them 
so ailing, that they cannot work, or so near the approach of 
death that the aforesaid vicar for the time being or his paro- 
chial chaplain cannot come in good and seasonable time to 
visit such parishioners thus ailing, and to administer the sacra- 
ments, then the aforesaid Chaplain of the said Chapel may 
hear the confessions of such said parishioners, and may ab- 
solve them, [and] may, if necessary, administer sacraments and 
sacramentals to them in due form ; the aforesaid parishioners 
of Deritend and Bordesley confessing to the said vicar of 
Aston for the time being, or to his parochial chaplain, once 
in the year, as of right they are bound to do. So that from 
all and every the things above named and set down, no pre- 
judice may hereafter arise to the said mother church of Aston, 
or to the aforesaid Prior and INIonks or their successors, or to 
the aforesaid Sir Eichard the Vicar or his successors. In faith 
and testimony of all and every which things, the parties afore- 



60 "given at deeitend, a.d. 1381." 

apposuerunt / Dat apucl Dury3atehende pJdict xiij"^'" Ktn 
Junij Anno dni mitimo ccc™° octogesimo primo / Et nos Rofet} 
afidcus dei gra Coventr T: Lich Epus loci diocesan} p)dce 
composicoi consensum nrm pJbentes T: assensum sigillum nrm 
pjsentib} apponi fecim} in robnr T: firmitate pjmisso^ / Dat 
apud Haywode iiij*° Kin Junij Anno diii sup'^dco / et nri Cons 
vicesimo pmo. 

The terms of this remarkable document, show that the men 
of Deritend and Bordesley had taken up a thoroughly inde- 
pendent attitude, and that neither the Monks of Tykeford, 
nor the Vicar of Aston, nor the Bishop of the Diocese, 
thought it safe to resist their determination to have ser- 
vices and a chaplain of their own, entirely independent of 
the Parish Church of Aston. There is a striking contrast 
between the whole form and tone of this document and 
those of the one, of fifty years later date, which was printed 
in 1695 by Bishop Kennett.* 

There can be no doubt, morally speaking, that the business 
of the important document thus "given at Deritend on the 
20th day of May, a.d. 1381," was transacted in The Old 

* The document touching Pidington (see the notes before, pp. 48, 53,) is in the 
form of a Decree issued by the Bishop, instead of being, as this is, a "compo- 
sicio " between equal parties. That decree not only bound the chapel-priest (he 
is not honoured by the title " Chaplain," as in this case) to make personal submis- 
sion to the Vicar, but bound the inhabitants to pay a sum of money and a quantity 
of corn every year as a tribute to the same Vicar, without any equivalent whatever. 
This is hardly the place to follow out this and similar comparisons. The refer- 
ence to Kennett having been already given, it will be enough now to refer, in 
addition, to the Act of 7 Anne, c. 34, by which the Parish of St. Philip was erected 
in Birmingham, in 1708 ; and by which Act the new Parish is bound to pay to the 
Kector of old St. Martin's £15 a year, and to the Parish Clerk £7 a year, besides 
other liabilities. These facts are stated to show the questions that have always 
arisen when Parishes have been divided. Our Deritend fathers in 1381 seemed 
better able to grapple with all parts of the case, than men have usually been 
found able to do in more modern times. 



ROBERT O' THE GRENE. Gl 

said have put their seals one after the other to these presents. 
Given at Deritend aforesaid, on the 20th day of May in the 
year of our Lord 1381. And we Robert abovenamcd, by the 
grace of God Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, diocesan of 
the place, giving our consent and assent to the aforesaid 
agreement, have caused our seal to be put to these presents 
in assurance and confirmation of the premisses. Given at 
Haywode on the 29tli day of May in the year of our Lord 
aforesaid, and of our consecration the twenty-first. 

Crown House. From the " Gallorye Chamber " of that 
House, the new Chapel was, as its less picturesque successor 
still is, the most conspicuous object. 

Four seals remain attached to the original document, as 
will be seen on the facsimile. Of these, the one nearest the 
left hand is the seal of the Monks of Tykeford ; the next 
towards the right is that of the Bishop of Coventry and 
Lichfield ; the next is that of Sir John Birmingham. The 
seal nearest the right hand is the seal representing all 
the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley, but it is the per- 
sonal seal of Robert o' the Grene. This I am able to prove 
by comparing it with the seals attached to the ancient pri- 
vate Deeds that have come down to me together with The 
Old Crown House. I may therefore say, without presump- 
tion, that Robert o' the Grene thus stands before us, acknow- 
ledged by all the freeholders and inhabitants of Deritend 
and Bordesley of his own time, as well as 
by the Bishop of the Diocese and the Lord 
of the Manor of Birmingham, to be the man 
whose seal is to be accepted as a true and 
sufficient attestation to a record made in the 
name and on the behalf of all the inhabi- 
tants of Deritend and Bordesley. Such having been tlie case, 
it will be an interesting memorial- of Old Birmingham to 




62 A SEAL CUT OFF. 

give here an outline of this seal of Eobert o' the Grene. His 
name will come before ns more than once again. 

It will be seen that an empty space is left between the seal 
of the Monks of Tykeford and that of the Bishop. When 
the document was executed, this space was unquestionably 
filled with the seal of the Vicar of Aston. The place for 
holding the strip of parchment on which the seal was put, and 
which passed through the fold in the parchment of the docu- 
ment itself, is plainly seen in the facsimile. It is certain 
that this seal A¥as once in its place ; and it is equally certain 
that it has been removed, not accidentally but designedly. 
It is physically impossible, from the way in which one end 
of the doubled strip whereon the seals are put is always split, 
and the other end passed through it before the sealing, that, 
even if the seal were ever so much broken, the double strip 
itself could have dropped out by accident. The inference is, 
that either Sir Richard Shobenhale himself or some successor 
of his, stirred to wrath by the attachment of Birmingham to 
the teachings of John Wyclif, — or, shall it be said, vexed at 
the seeming assent to the curtailment of his authority Avhich 
the hanging of the Vicar's seal to this document gave per- 
petual record of, — found an opportunity, on some occasion 
when the document was produced in his sight, to cut away 
this seal. That the thing was done is certain ; but the ex- 
ploit was a very vain one ; for Deritend Chapel has flourished 
ever since, not, it must be remembered (as has been some- 
times loosely but quite incorrectly said), as a" Chapel of Ease '' 
to Aston Church, but as an entirely independent Chapel and 
incumhency ; whose incumbent, moreover, has always had, 
and still enjoys, the official title, not of " Curate," but, 
what is very rare in ecclesiastical foundations of this class in 
England, of " Chaplain." 

Special attention must be called to the fact, that Deritend 
Chapel was not built, nor was any Chaplain ever appointed 



BLUNDERS IN NxVMES. G3 

to it, to say masses for the souls of those who were dead, 
as was the case with the before-named Free Chapel, and 
with the two Chauntries in old St. Martin's Church. The 
spirit of Piers Plowman and of John Wyclif being that which 
moved the founders of tliis Chapel, the character and func- 
tions of the Chaplain are pat in the simple but emphatic 
words, that he was to be one "fit to administer divine services 
before God and the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley." 
John Wyclif himself might have dictated those words. It 
is not improbable that he did so. 

Something must be added as to the ]\Ien of Deritend and 
Bordesley whose Names are thus honorably recorded. It will 
be seen that the greater part of them are now set down as 
having settled surnames of continuance, and not merely with 
descriptive surnames. In some instances, these are incor- 
rectly given here; which is not to be wondered at, consi- 
dering the number of distinct parties that had a hand in the 
document, and tliat the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordes- 
ley were anxious about the thing to be done, and were too 
wise to stop to trouble themselves about the spelling of 
names, well assured that, " where the persons appeared the 
same," no one " would fall out about misnomer."* 

Bohert o the Grenes name is here written as if he had 
dropped the descriptive particles and taken the modern 
surname. This was not the case. He was a thorough Eng- 
lishman, and he and his family clung to a name which, while 
in itself descriptive only, was, from its bearer's position, ac- 
tivity, and influence, more distinctive, and felt to be more 
genial, than any shortening of it would be. I am able to 
affirm that none of his family would ever allow the name to 
be travestied in Latin, as was so commonly done in case of 
other names. f I have many private deeds in which his name 

* See before, p. 16, in the extract from Fuller. 

t Persons bearing this name elsewhere in En<;land, are found recorded in the 



64 DERITEND MEN OF 1381. 

is repeated, for it occurs again and again through nearly- 
one hundred and twenty years after this time ; and, in eA^ery 
one of these, without exception, though all are in Latin, the 
name is spelled ^'- Bohert o the Grene.''' 

Eichard of Broke is also here incorrectly written. We 
have had the name before,* as " atte broke." It is a mis- 
translation into Latin of the very common English particle. 

The names Flaumvile and Conner are instances of names 
out of w'hich others have grown, through the common use of 
contractions in writing. Flaumvile would be often written 
" Flavile," and Couper is, in this document itself, written 
" Coup." Hence have sprung the names Flavell and Cope^ 
both of which are common Birmingham surnames. 

For the rest, Boteler lives in the shapes Botteley and But- 
ler ; Smyth has exchanged the " y" for "i," except in a few 
cases of mere affectation; Jeffe lives as Jeffs; Holdon has 
become hardly disguised at all, as Holden ; Bod lives in the 
shapes of Bodd and Bodson ; Bene seems to have undergone 
the slight change of becoming Benet ; Huwet remains, with 
the spelling Hewitt ; Chattok has undergone even less change. 

The Chaplain who was " had and appointed at their own 
charges," must have been supported, during the first year and 
a half, either out of a rate made among themselves by the 



LICENCE IN MORTMAIN, FOE THE ENDOWMENT OF THE 
CHAPLAIN OF DERITEND CHAPEL, a.d. 1383. 

Ricardus Dei gracia Eex Anglie T: ffrancie T: Dominus 
Hibnie. Omnib} ad quos pJsentes tre pveniint Salutem. Sciatis 

Latin shape of " de la grene." The name liappens, by an odd coincidence, to 
be found in that shape in records relating to " Little Birmingham," in Norfolk. 
See before, p. IS. 

* Page 29. 

t P. 26. In cases where several persons joined to make an endowment, it was 
of course less necessary to delay for the inquirj'^, as the presumption was strong 
against any "loss and prejudice " through the individual gifts. 



EXDOAVING A CIIArLAIX. G5 

inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley, or out of the insen- 
sibly arising- but practically always large produce of the Of- 
fertory. But, having achieved the important ends of build- 
ing their ov^'U Church and getting their own Chaplain, it 
seemed to some among them that it would be wise to provide 
an endowment for the permanent support of the Chaplain. So 
six of them joined together to make up an endowment which 
should produce at least ten marks a year, a handsome endow- 
ment for that time. Desiring to settle this endowment with- 
out delay, the Letters Patent containing the Licence in Mort- 
main were obtained at once, with the clause mentioned beforef 
as being rare ; the disinterestedness of the endowers being 
further marked by the fact that, in order to obtain this early, 
though only conditional. Licence, they went to the enormous 
cost, as it then was, of paying thirty-five marks as a fine, to 
cover any hypothetical loss of services due from the land 
granted by them in mortmain for this endowment.* 

To complete the record of the facts as to the foundation 
and endowment of Deritend Chapel, I now put in type the 
exact terms of this Licence in Mortmain, together with an 
English translation of it, as was done in the case of the 
Agreement. A facsimile of the original Letters Patent is 
also given at the end of this volume. 

TEANSLATION. 
EiCHAED by the grace of God King of England and France 
and Lord of Ireland. To all to whom the present letters may 
have come. Greeting. Know ye, that of our special grace w^e 

* On the Fine lloU of 6 Eieliard II. I have found the following, m hicli I here 
print in full, without the contractions : — " Wcirr. Willielnius Geffou et alii daut 
triginta et quinque marcas, solutas in hanaperio, pro licencia concedendi eis quod 
ipsi certa terras et tenementa et redditus cum pertinentibus infra parochiam de 
Aston in comitatu Warr., que de Eege non teneiitur in capite, dare possint et 
assignare cuidam capellauo in quadam capella fundata et ordinata in hameletto 
de Duriyatehende infra parochiam prediclam celebraturo, habeuda ad mauum 
mortuam. Teste Eege apud Westmonasterium. xx die Februnrii." 



66 LICENCE IN MORTMAIN 

qd de gra lira spali concessimus 1 licenciam declimus p nob 

T: heredib} nris quantum in nol3 est Witto GefFon Thome 

Holdon Eobto of the Grene Rico Bene Thome de Behie T: 

Johi Smyth qd ipi terras teh T: redditus cum ptih infra po- 

chiam de Aston in Com War? ad valorem decem marca^ p 

annu juxta veru valorc eo^dc que de nobis non tenenf in 

capite dare possint 1 assignare cuidam Capellano divina quo- 

libet die in quadam Capella fundata T: ordinata in honore sci 

Johis Baptiste in hameletto de Duriyatehende infra pochiam 

pjdcam celebraturo. Hend T: tenend eidem Capellano T: sue' 

cessorib} suis Capellanis divina singulis dieb} in Capella pjdca 

celebraturis imppetuum. Et eidem Capellano qd ipe rras ten 

T: redditus pJdca cum ptiri a pJfatis AVillo Thoma Robto Rico 

Thoma T: Johe recipe possit T: tenere sibi T; successorib3 suis 

Capellanis divina singulis dieb} in capella pJdca celebraturis 

ut pjdcm est imppetuu tenore pJsencium similir licenciam 

dedimus spalem. statuto de tris T: teil ad manu mortuam non 

ponendis edito non obstante. Salvis semp capitalib} dnis 

feodi serviciis inde debitis 1 consuetis. Dumtamen p inqui- 

sicoes inde in forma debita capiend T: in cancellaria nra vel 

heredum nro^ rite retornand comptum sit qd id fieri porit 

absqn, dampno sen pjjudicio nri T: heredum nro^ ac alio^ 

quo^cunqy In cujus rei testimonium has Iras ilras fieri feci- 

mus patentes. Teste me ipo apud Westm vicesimo die fi"e- 

bruarij. Anno regni nri sexto. 

Newenham. 

p fere de private sig 1 p triginta % quinq^ marcis solut in hanapio. ' 



FOll ENDOWING THE CHAPLAIN. 67 

have granted and given licence, for ourselves and our heirs, 
so far as in us is, to William Gefeon, Thomas Holdon, 
EoBEET o' the Grene, Richard Bene, Thomas of Belne, 
and John S.aiyth, that they may give and assign lands tene- 
ments and rents, with the appurtenances, within the Parish 
of Aston in the County of Warwick, to the value of ten marcs 
a year [£6 13s. 4^/.], according to the true value thereof, 
which are not held from us in chief, to a certain Chaplain 
who shall celebrate divine service each day in a certain chapel 
founded and appointed in honor of Saint John the Baptist 
in the hamlet of Deritend within the parish aforesaid. To 
have and to hold to the same Chaplain and his successors, 
Chaplains, who shall celebrate divine service every day in 
the aforesaid Chapel, for ever. And we have likewise given 
special licence to the same Chaplain, that he may receive 
and hold the lands tenements and rents aforesaid, with the 
appurtenances, from the before-named William, Thomas, 
Robert, Richard, Thomas, and John, for himself and his suc- 
cessors. Chaplains, who shall celebrate divine service every 
day in the Chapel aforesaid, as is aforesaid, for ever, according 
to these presents ; the Statute passed concerning not putting 
lands and tenements into mortmain notwithstanding. Saving 
ahvays to the chief lords of the fee the services thence due 
and accustomed. Provided that, by inquiries thereupon in 
due form to be made, and into our Chancery or that of our 
heirs rightly returned, it may have been found that this can 
be done without loss or prejudice to us or our heirs or any 
others whomsoever. In testimony Avhereof we have caused 
these our letters to be made Patent. Witness myself at 
Westminster, on the 20th day of February, in the sixth year 
of our reign. 

Newenham. 

By writ of privy seal^ and for thirty and five marcs paid into the 
hanaper. 



68 DAILY SERVICES IN CHURCH. 

To these letters patent, the Great Seal of England is at- 
tached, by a bright red and green silken cord, in the nsual 
manner. The memorandum as to the payment of the thirty- 
five marcs, is written in a different hand and with a different 
ink from what were used in the body of the letters patent. 
It was evidently added afterwards.* 

It will not escape notice, that it is thrice repeated, in these 
letters patent, that the Chaplain is to perform service in the 
Chapel every day. This is not specified in the "Agreement " 
of 1381 ; but it was clearly the intention of the endowers to 
ensure that the Church which they and their neighbours had 
built should be every day open, so that any neighbour might 
be able, at any time, to find there fit opportunity for the 
sacrifice of thanksgiving and prayer. 

Four of these endowers were certainly the same as four of 

* The Eey. John Darwall, for many years Chaplain of Derltend, was a very 
careful and conscientious man. Afc the end of the Eegister Book of Deritend, he 
made a copy, on vellum, of both the Agreement and the Letters Patent above 
gi^ren, — oddly enough, however, transposing their order. This book is now in 
the hands of the Eev. W. Bramwell Smith, as Chaplain of Deritend ; through 
•whose courtesy I have made a literatim copy of Mr. Darwall's transcripts therein. 
I find, upon comparison of these transcripts with the originals, that there are 
som?, and rather curious, inaccuracies in the transcripts ; but it does not seem 
necessary to point these out. The facsimiles given in this volume are of course 
without appeal. 

In the same Eegister Book, Mr. Darwall entered a Memorandum, under the 
date of 16th May, L821, which still remains there, carefully attested by two 
■witnesses, and recording that both the original documents were, on that day, put 
into the hands of Mr. J. W. Whateley for an official and very proper purpose, 
■which is stated in the Memorandum. It seems strange that Mr. Darwall, who lived 
some years longer, should have let documents as to ■n hich he took such careful 
and proper precautions, remain uninquired after. Mr. Whateley fulfilled his 
duties ; and, when they had been fulfilled, he did not retain the documents. 
Nevertheless, but for my own persistent search, these documents would unques- 
tionably have been lost to history and to the town. Even the BailiiFof the Deri- 
tend Chapel Estates slated in writing, in October, 1863, that he " never heard " 
of these documents, and, ■w'hen further pressed, that he could " find no trace of 
them " ! ! I forbear to touch upon the circumstances under which documents so 
remarkable have remained so long out of their right custody. For myself, I at 
least have done my duty in bringing the full knowledge of the documents them- 
selves to all who care for what illustrates important historical events. 



WHO WERE THE ENDOWERS. 69 

the men who took part in the Agreement of 1381 ; namely, 
Thomas HoMon, Robert o' tlie Grene, Richard Bene, and John 
Smyth. But I am much disposed to think, also, that the 
William " Geffon " of the former is the same as the William 
" '^^ff^ " ^^ ^^^^ latter. Thomas of Belne is new, unless this 
is, as I suspect it to be, a mere corrupt spelling (the sound 
remaining the same) of " BeneT It is certain that there was 
much carelessness in these matters.* On the cn-iginal Let- 
ters Patent, now before me, the name of Richard Bene was at 
first written "Bever." This was so preposterous a blunder, in 
sound as well as in spelling, that when the Letters Patent 
reached Birmingham, an erasure was made on the place, and 
" Bene " was written instead ; but the name remains " Bever " 
on the copy of the Licence that stands upon the Patent Polls 
now in the Record Office.f " Belne " would sound too much 

* A curious illustration of the uncertainty with which names were formerly 
spelled, is found in letters patent of 162 years later date than the letters patent 
now named, and which concerned a person whose power and influence make it 
strange that there should be found such uncertainty. The Manor of Birming- 
ham was granted to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, on 21st December, 1545. He 
was the grandson of the Lord of Lisle named in " Traditions of the Old Crown 
House," p. 51. A facsimile of a Deed touching The Old Crown House, to which 
the last-named Lord of Lisle and the famous Bishop Alcok were parties, is given 
in that volume. It might be supposed that the scribes would have known how 
to spell the name of a minister of Henry the Eighth, or at any rate that they 
would have kept to one spelling of it. Not so, however. I find that, in the grant 
itself, the name is spelled in the very different shapes of I/ysle and Lisley, spell- 
ings that are the source of very different modern surnames, and that are quite as 
different as Jeffe is from Geffon, or Bene from Belne. Further on (p. 78) we find 
Geffen (not Geffon) ; which brings us nearly back to Jeffe. 

t See before, p. 23. I took the name from the Patent Roll, when giving it in 
"Traditions of the Old Crown House," p. 46. I may mention here another in- 
stance of erasure that I have observed in a highly interesting document. In the 
oldest Charter of the City of London, granted by William I. (and quoted before, 
p. 24, note), the title of the Chief Officer of the City is written upon an erasure. 
There can be no mistake about the fact, though the late Town Clerk of London, 
when I once pointed out the fact to him, said that of course he could not officially 
acknowledge it. This erasure is curious. The title, as it stands, is " portlrefan " 
(port-reeve). The common English title of the chief officer of places was then 
"prafast" {profast, profost, provost); and in all probability the scribe wrote 
this word first, by very uatui-al mistake. 

F 



70 " DUKY3ATEHENDE." 

like " Bene " to attract attention when the Licence was read 
over to those whom it concerned. It is far less of a variation 
than is found in the instances given by Fuller.* The in- 
terpolated particle "of" ("de" in the Latin), would not be 
thought of any importance. 

As the place Newenham is in Warwickshire, it will not 
be uninteresting to add, that the Thomas of Newenham whose 
surname attests these Letters Patent, is named in the Close 
Roll of the first year of Eichard II., as one among three 
who were Keepers of the Great Seal of England at the time 
of the death of Edward III. A curious account is there 
given of what was done with the old Great Seal, and of the 
delivery to the Chancellor of a new Great Seal, — namely, 
the one of which the impression remains still attached to 
these very Letters Patent, f 

The amount of the fine paid for the speedy issue of this 
Licence, gives proof of the wealth, as well as of the 
public spirit, of those who thus endowed Deritend Chapel 
in 1383. 

It will be observed that, in these two documents, Deritend 
is spelled " Dury3atehende " and " Duriyatehende." The 
correct spelling has been given and explained in the " Tra- 
ditions of the Old Crown House." The sound of " Der-yat- 
end " is the same as that of the spellings found in these two 
documents. It is a curious coincidence, worth notice, that 
the syllable " Dur " should have crept in here ; inasmuch as 
" dur " is Welsh for " water," and often appears in the names 
of English rivers ; and so it might, on a superficial glance, 
be thought that " Dury3atehende " expressed something of 
the position of the place on the river. But " Rea " is, be- 

* Before, p. 17. 

t " Qui quidem cancellarius," the record tells us, " eodem die, in capella sua, 
apud hospitium suum in vico de Flete Stret, Londini, dictam bursam aperuit, et 
dictum sigillum extraxit, et diversas literas patentes de diversis officiariis regni 
ibidem fecit consignari." 



THE DEER-GATE-END. 71 

yond a question, the old name of this river, and not " Diir." 
" Ilea " is a Gaelic word, expressing running water, and is 
also found as the name (sometimes a little disguised) of many 
rivers in England. As for " Deritend " — " Der-yat-end " — 
it remains the End nigh the " Deer-Gate."* 

There are some circumstances connected with the later his- 
tory of Deritend Chapel that may be instructively glanced at. 

The fraud upon Parliament, under cover of which Gilds 
and other Bodies were robbed of their property, under false 
pretences, and in the much desecrated name of religion, 
at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., in order to feed 
the rapacity of hungry courtiers, has been already described.! 
The endowments wdiich maintained the Chaplain as well as 
the Gild of Deritend, w^ere thus unrighteously confiscated, 
under the pretence (which it has been here shown was wholly 
untrue) that this w^as a Chauntry ; although, inconsistently 
enough, this Chapel, more happy than the " Free Chapel of 
Birmingham," as will presently be seen, was left standing, and 
the services were continued here. The legalized plunder from 
which the wdiole town suffered so much, w^ould be particu- 
larly felt in the case of this Chapel. Robbed of long-enjoyed 
sources of income, both Chaplain and Chapel became wholly 
a charge upon the inhabitants. It is no marvel, then, that 

* This interpretation, stated in " Traditions of the Old Crown House," p. 45, 
has since received very unexpected confirmation. Mr. William Hodgetts informs 
me that he himself remembers the existence of a deer-park here, and has seen 
deer feeding in it, and that a large part of the wall of this park stood, at the time 
he speaks of, on the North side of Bradford Street. He specifically informs me 
that a " portion of the wall now forms a portion of the yard attached to the police 
station in Alcester Street and Bradford Street ; and withia my recollection, there 
were considerable extents of boundaries both in Bradford and Warwick Streets ; 
and from the back yards of the houses, which no doubt had been built on portions 
of the park, the deer were frequently fed from the hands of the tenants." The 
conclusion at which I arrived from a comparison of ancient records, receives a 
curious confirmation in these recollections of one of the oldest, but most observant, 
of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The park no doubt reached, originally, 
to the limit prescribed by the Statute of Winchester. See before, p. 49. 

t " Traditions of the Old Crown House," pp. 36-42. 

F 2 



72 ENDOWMENT OF 1677. 

decay gradually fastened on the old Chapel of 1375. I find 
that, exactly three hundred years after the Chapel was built 
(namely, in 1675), the Vicar General of Lichfield gave notice 
that repairs were needed. This seems to have stirred up a 
worthy man to imitate the example of those who had endowed 
the Chapel three hundred years earlier. On 21st August, 
1677, Humphrey Lowe gave a messuage and lands at Eowley 
Regis to Trustees, to maintain the Chaplain and to repair the 
Chapel; an endowment which is still enjoyed and applied 
for those purposes by the successors of those Trustees.* 
Other endowments followed ; but the helping hand came too 
late to save the old Chapel, round which clustered so many 
memories well worthy to be cherished with pride. Decay 
was thought, perhaps over hastily, to have gone too far for 
reparation to avail. And so, sixty years after the issue of 
the before-named notice for repair by the Vicar General of 
Lichfield, the original Chapel of Wyclif s time, of which the 
outw^ard look has happily been preserved and is given at the 
front of this volume, was pulled down, and the now-standing 
Chapel was built in its stead. 

And upon this occasion there took place a very note- 
worthy transaction, which stands out the more marked by 
contrast with the transaction of 1381. 

Notwithstanding the formal adoption of the Reformation 
in and after Edward the Sixth's time, the cultivation of super- 
stition seems so natural to some men that all sorts of arti- 
ficial devices were gradually again invented by ecclesiastical 
officials, and some of them were carried to lengths never 
reached in Romish times, in order to impose shackles upon 

* The words in which, the original Deeds of this and other gifts describe the 
Chaplain, are the same, in spirit, as those of the Agreement of 1381. He is to be 
" a man of honest and sober conversation, fitly qualified for the constant preach- 
ing of God's holy word, and performance of such offices and services as ought, 
by a faithful minister of God's word, according to the B-eformed Protestant reli- 
giouj to be performed." See before, pp. 57, 63. 



"faculties" over-riding the law. 73 

religious and clerical thought and action, and to interfere 
with the simplicity of Protestant worship. In 1375, the 
inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley built a new Church 
because they chose to do so. In 1735, all sorts of mystifica- 
tions about pretended '•^Faculties" were used, to throw dust 
in their eyes as to what they could do and what they might 
be allowed to do, in the way of repairing and rebuilding; 
and even as to setting up again the font, pulpit, and com- 
munion table, that had been used there by them and their 
fathers for more than three hundred and fifty years ! — as if a 
" Faculty," put forth by a Bishop or his Vicar-General, could 
really have, in itself, any power whatever, by the Law of 
England, to make anything lawful or unlawful. In this case, 
however, these ingenious contrivances for converting super- 
stition into a means of raising fees for officials (for that is 
the only real meaning or use of " Faculties "), did worse than 
raise mystifications.* 

In the old Chapel all the seats were, of course, free and 
common to all the inhabitants of Deritend and Bordesley. 
For such is the Common Law^ and the ancient practice of 



* " I call that a simple Licence or Faculty which, does not in reality suspend 
or toll the obligation of a Law, but gives an operation thereunto, in order to 
render it effectual according to a certain mode or method prescrihed hy Lato, 
... It ought to be accommodated to the intention of the Law." Ayliff'e's 
Parergon, p. 221. This sound authority, whose work was published in 1726, and 
whose weight no one will venture to question, wrote too soon for it to be possible 
that the favorers of the ecclesiastical encroachments that have grown up in recent 
times, should find much comfort in his pages. The words now quoted are suffi- 
cient to stigmatize the "Faculties" that are mentioned in the text. The at- 
tempt made was, to override the actual Law, and to impose a new one that is 
wholly repugnant to the spirit and the practice of the actual Law. And the 
great law-upsetter and law-maker was the Vicar-General of a Diocese ! 

There is not a clergyman in England who has not known the weight of the 
fees extracted from him at different times. They have as much lawfulness as 
these "Faculties," — and no more. At the end of Aylifle, and also between 
pp. 134 and 135 of every complete edition of Sparrow's Canons, will be found a 
table of fees ; which those who have any curiosity to see what modern eccle- 
siastical extortion can do, in the face of plain Law, will usefully examine. 



/4 A CONGEEGATION IN CHURCH. 

England as to the seats in every Parish Church ; and Deri- 
tend Chapel is a Parish Church so far as Deritend and Bordes- 
ley are concerned. " The Church is in common for every 
one : wherefore, it is not in reason that one should have his 
seat and that two should stand ; for no place is more for one 
than for another."* " The body of the Church is common 
to all the inhabitants."t "And indeed, before the age of 
our Reformation, no Seats were allowed, nor any different 
apartment in a Church assigned, to distinct inhabitants ; but 
the whole Nave or Body of the Church was common ; and 
the whole Assembly, in the more becoming postures of kneel- 
ing or standing, were promiscuous and intermixt."j "If we 
look into all our churches, we shall see thousands or hundreds 
of people jointly resorting to God's public ordinances, wor- 
ship, sacraments, celebrated in them ; yet varying from each 
other in their dignities, sexes, ages, callings, conditions, 
estates, vestments, attires, fashions, features; yea private 
opinions, voices, corporal gestures ; some of them sitting in 
seats, others in galleries, others on forms; others standing in 
allies [aisles] ; here men and women, there old men, young 
men and women, sitting or standing apart from each other ; 
some praying standing, while others kneel; others praying, 
reading, singing, with an audible voice, though differing in 
tones or tunes from each other, like pipes in an organ, or 
strings in a lute ; yet all making sweet melody and harmony 
in God's ears, and but one congregation." § 

But " Richard Rider, Esquire, Batchelor of Laws, Vicar- 
General of the Diocese," knew much better than all this. 
He would by no means have approved the noble answer given 
by the Barons of England in the old time, when the eccle- 

* Year Books, 8 Henry YII. 

t Lord Coke's Eeports : Vol. 12, p. 105. (Corven's Case.) 
X Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, p. 596 : ed. 1695. 

§ Apology for tender consciences conforming to Public Liturgy, etc.; by 
William Prynue (a.d. 1662) 



OLD FREE SITTINGS, NEWLY FRINGED. tO 

siastics of that day wished to persuade them to agree to mis- 
chievous encroachments upon the free Law of England, — • 
though that attempt was, at any rate, made in open Parlia- 
ment.* On the 26th day of June, 1739, he issued a "Fa- 
culty " to set aside the Law of England, and to impose 
" Charges upon the People," at the mere will and pleasure, 
and by the sole authority, of him, Eichard Eider. He put 
forth his edict that pew rents should thenceforth be de- 
manded and enforced for some of the seats in Deritend Cha- 
pel. But it is very instructive to observe, that even this 
trader in " Faculties " (a trade not unlike the older trade in 
" Indulgences ") had some twinges of conscience. The new 
chapel covered all the ground covered by the old Chapel, 
and some more besides. So this precious " Faculty " de- 
clares that where, in the old Chapel, the inhabitants of De- 
ritend and Bordesley had sat free, there, in the new Chapel, 
they should continue to sit free as aforetime ; but that rents 
should be demanded, and the payment of them be enforced, 
for certain enumerated lists of seats that lie beyond the 
magic margin of the ground thus hallowed by the free 
spirit of the older time.f 

I know not of a more thorough or more striking example 
able to be produced, of the contrast between the real freedom of 
our older institutions, and the hollow pretentiousness of much 
that is vaunted in modern times as " progress." No comment 
is needed. It is enough to quote the apt remark made by 
Lord Tenterden in the case of some other less mischievous 

* "Etomnes Comifces et Barones una voce responderunt, quod nolunt leges 
Angli* mutare, qu(B hucusque usitatce sunt et approhatce." Statute of Merton. 
See Lord Coke's Second Institute, pp. 96-99. 

t As representative of founders of the original Chapel of Wyclif's time, my 
own right and that of my ancestors to seats within this magic margin has, of 
course, been always undisputed. I find indeed the particulars entered, with 
minute care, in old memoranda. I call attention, therefore, to the subject now, 
not as having any personal interest in it here, but as involving a matter of vital 
public principle, on the maintenance of which the very existence of a Church of 
the People, beloved and respected, must depend. 



76 ABORTIVE ATTEMPT OF 13S2. 

Faculties, which were pleaded before him in his judicial ca- 
pacity. " It is clear,'''' said that eminent Lord Chief Justice, 
" that these Faculties have no validity in Law''^ The mis- 
fortune is, that they succeed in deceiving many people into 
a belief in their validity. 

Passing now from transactions that reflect so much honour 
on our Birmingham fathers of Wyclif s time, and the direct 
benefit of which is still being reaped by their successors 
after the lapse of nearly five hundred years, some trans- 
actions of a few years later must next be glanced at, from 
which also the town still reaps, in part, though not in the 
same direct manner, a present benefit. 

It seems that what was doing in Deritend, roused some 
other men in the Borough to wish for the presence of the 
new religious life in the upper town, instead of, or at least 
in addition to, the daily routine that was perfunctorily gone 
through in old St. Martin's Church. To meet this wish, 
a Licence in Mortmain was, on 25th October, a.d. 1382, 
obtained by Thomas of Sheldon, John Colleshull, John 
GoLDSMYTH, and William atte Slowe \_sic'], to enable the 
endowment by them of two Chaplains who should celebrate 
divine service daily [divina singulis diebus'], "in honour of 
God, our Lady his mother. Holy Cross, Saint Thomas the 
Martyr, and Saint Catherine, in the Church of St. Martin of 
Birmingham." But these good intentions never really took 
eff'ect. They were let sink down to form part of the great 
tessellated pavement that lines the floor of a place very diff'e- 
rent from our good old St. Martin's. Ten years later, how- 
ever, the matter was taken in hand by the town itself, in 
its Corporate capacity; and on the 10th July, 1392, a Writ 
ad quod damnum was, upon the motion of the Bailiff's and 
Commonalty,! issued to Thomas Ralegh, then Escheator of 

* Golding V. Fenn, Barnewall and Cresswell's Eeports, vol. 7, p. 781. 

t " CommunUas " — for which the correct English equivalent is " Commonalty " 



GILD OF TPIE HOLY CROSS, 1392. 77 

the County. This writ, from which I now copy, recites the 
Licence of 1382, as having been granted to " Thojias Shel- 
don, since dead, John Colleshull, John Goldsmyth, and 
William atte Slowe [sic], Burgesses of the Town of Ber- 
myngeham ; " and that " now the Bailiffs and Commonalty of 
the said town of Bermyngeham have prayed us that, in ex- 
change for the said Licence, which never took effect, as they 
say, we would grant to them Licence that they themselves, 
in honor of the Holy Cross,* may make and found a Gild 
and perpetual Fraternity among themselves in that town, of 
bretheren and sustern,f as well men and women of the said 
town of Bermingeham as men and women of other towns and 
of the country who are well disposed towards it, and may make 
and appoint a Master and Wardens of the said Gild and Fra- 
ternity, who shall have rule and governance of the same J;" and 
also that a Chauntry may be founded, and that " other works 
of charity " \_alia opera caritatis] may be done,§ " according 
to the appointment and pleasure of the said Bailiffs and 
Commonalty;" and that John Colleshull, John Goldsmyth, 
and William atte Slowe \sic\ may grant and assign, to the 
Master and Wardens of the proposed Gild, eighteen mes- 
suages, three tofts, six acres of land, and forty shillings of 
rents, in Birmingham and Edgbaston. The Writ then directs 

— is the corporate title and description of a place. A City or Borough is, in its 
corporate capacity, a " comraunitas:" so is a County. This is the name found on 
all ancient seals, and throughout the ancient Eolls of Parliament. As none but 
" Coramunitates " sent Members to Parliament, the Representative House became 
called the " House of the Commonalties " — shortened into " Commons." It is 
essential to a true knowledge of English history, thoroughly to understand that 
" communitas " expresses a corporate municipal existence, and that the English 
equivalent of the Mord is " commonalty." It means a real thing, not any fanciful 
theory. See the description of the " Mark," quoted in the note to p. 6. 

* See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. S2, as to Gilds dedicated to 
Saints. 

t See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 31, 38. 

J Compare extracts as to Gild of Exeter, in " Traditions of The Old Crown 
House," p. 30. 

§ Tliese works included roads, bridges, etc. See "Traditions of The Old 
Crown House," p. 38, 39. 



78 THE JURY, AND ITS FINDING. 

that Inquiry shall be made, in the usual manner, whether all 
this can be done without loss or injury to any one, or to the 
Country.* 

The Inquiry was accordingly made in Birmingham, on the 
Saturday next after the feast of Saint Peter ad vincula (1st 
August), 1392, by a Jury consisting of the following persons : 
— Richard Sheryngton ; — Robert o' the Grene [sic] ; — 
Thomas of Wyrley; — John of Wyrley ; — John Spycer ;— =" 
David Verdon ; — Richard Boteller ; — John Phelipp ; — 
William Geffen; — Lawrence Sturmy; — John Barber; — • 
and, Thomas Phelipp. 

The Jury found that the formation and endowment of the 
proposed Gild would not be any injury to any one. They 
went on to say, that sixteen of the messuages, the three tofts, 
and the forty shillings of rents in Birmingham, were held, by 
the intending donors, of the heirs of John of Birmingham, 
Knight;! and that those heirs held of Isabella, Lady of 
Dudley, who held of the King ; and that the two other mes- 
suages were held of John Warde, who held of the heirs of 
John of Birmingham, Knight, who held as before ; and that 
the six acres of land in Edgbaston were held of Thomas of 
Middelmore, who held of the heirs of John of Birming- 
ham, who held of Hugh Burne, who held of the King ; and 
that all the intending donors had other property (which is 
enumerated), beyond what was proposed to be then granted 
away ; and that thus the discharge of the services due from 
each of those intending donors would be fully secured, and so 
the Country would not be in any way charged or burdened 
more than has been wont. 

The Licence in Mortmain was accordingly granted, to the 
Bailiffs and Commonalty of Birmingham, to establish the 

* See before, p. 25. 

t The same who joined in the Agreement for tlie settlement of matters as to 
Deri tend Cliapel. 



OFFICIAL BLUNDERS. 79 

Gild of the Holy Cross.* The Borough paid £50 for it to 
the Crown. Thus that Gild became founded, seventeen years 
after Deritend Chapel had been built. The Hall of the Gild 
was built in New Street, where the Free School now stands. 

None of the names mentioned in the course of these pro- 
ceedings seems to need special remark beyond what has been 
already made : but it will be observed, that fresh names come 
up on every fresh transaction ; thus again showdng the num- 
ber of substantial freeholders that formed part of the popu- 
lation of Birmingham in those early times. 

But this case gives a striking illustration of the astounding 
blunders made in the Reports of the Commissioners of Henry 
VIII. and Edward VI., which I have been obliged to remark 
before.f On matters of historical fact, these Reports can 
never be trusted, in the slightest degree, unless collaterally 
confirmed; though they are of course valuable when they con- 
tain admissions of states of things that tell in favour of the 
endowments that they were appointed to condemn. J The 
Commissioners of 37 Henry VIII. reported that this Gild of 
the Holy Cross was founded " in the xvj^'^ yere of Kyng 
Edward the seconde ;" the Commissioners of 1 Edward VI. 
reported that it was founded " in the xvj*^' yere of King 
Henrye the seconde." The true regnal year was, the six- 
teenth of Richard the second. 

A great affray took place in Birmingham not very long 
after the foundation of the Gild of the Holy Cross. § What 
particulars are recorded about this affray, are found on the 
Rolls of Parliament. The proper place to enumerate the 
Men and the Names concerned in it, seems therefore to be, 

* The most important operative words are these : — " Licenciam dedimus, quan- 
tum in nobis est, eisdem Ballivis et Communitati, quod ipsi, in honorcm sancte 
Crucis, facere possiut et f'undare unam Gildam et Frateruitatem perpetuam." 

t " Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 41, 42. 

Of this, the passage quoted on pp. 38, 39, of " Traditions of The Old Crown 
House " is one example. Some others will presently be cited. 

^ See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 48. 



80 



BEAUCHAMP V. BURDET. 



between the statement of aiFairs as to which I have drawn 
illustrations from the Patent and other Rolls and Records of 
a public character, and the enumeration of some of the Men 
and Names that are to be found in private Charters. 

It was on Saturday in the third week before Easter, in the 
year 1431, that this affray happened. The parties to it were 
clearly marked, as the Beauchamp party and the Burdet 
party. And it was upon Joan, the Lady of Bergevenny, 
that all the blame was cast, and not upon those who waxed 
warm in this affray on her behalf At the same time, it is 
clear, from the names recorded, that it was an affray in which 
many of the better class of the burgesses of Birmingham took 
part. The following are immortalized as leaders of the two 
hostile arrays. 



THE BEAUCHAMP PARTY. 

William Lee. 
Heney Brokesby. 
Henry Fylongley. 
John Ryder. 
Thomas Russell. 
John Seggesley. 
Meredith Walshman. 
Thomas Fauconek. 
Thomas Yerdeley. 
John Loudham. 
John op Wyrley. 
Henry Cooke op Weoley. 
Alexander Shepeld. 
John Chewe. 
John Morys. 

" and many others " [ ^ muUi 
alii] . 



THE BUEDET PARTY. 

Thomas Peynton. 

Richard Arblastre. 

John Cutte. 

John Glover. 

William Squyer. 

John Cooke. 

John Fraunceys. 

William Stretton. 

Hugh Roggeres. 

John Penford. 

Richard formerly servant of 

Richard Walrond. 
John Necheles. 
John Lord. 
"and others more ^^ \_^ ^lures 

alios] . 



Very few of these surnames are other than surnames of 
continuance. But neither list can be read without its being 
seen how many of them are merely taken from neighbouring 



NAMES FROM SERVICE. 81 

places, though the particle " of" has, in most cases, now gone 
out of use. There is one instance, the first yet met with, of 
a double surname, — showing how thoroughly established 
family surnames had now become. Henry Cooke of Weoley 
is a step towards the modern use of " additions." A few 
years before, he would have been called " Henry of AVeoley." 
But the name " Cooke " had become a family surname, and 
a further means of distinction was found necessary. On the 
other hand, Meredith Walshnan is very plainly Meredith the 
Welchman. 

Thomas Peynton introduces us to the family now known as 
Peyton. The latter name has, no doubt, like Flavell from 
Flaumvile, grown out of an ordinary form of contraction, 
Peynton having been often written " Peyton." 

The name of Bichard formerly servant of Richard TVal- 
rond, gives an example of a source of surnames of which no 
instance happens to have arisen here before, but which is 
by no means uncommon. It was in truth, however, the same 
thing as taking a surname from an office held, of which an 
example has been seen in the case of Peter Dapifer.* 
Retainers were often proud to take for a surname the name 
of him whom they served ; and this the rather that, in 
England, though they thus served another, they remained 
themselves free ; a condition of things upon which Lord 
Bacon specially remarks, in his Essay " On the true greatness 
of Kingdoms and Estates," as being " almost peculiar to 
England." 

I have already stated that a rich mine, whence to bring 
forth to light again the Men and the Names of bygone times, 
is to be found in the older class of Deeds, or " Charters " as 
they are called.f Having brought to light many of the Men 
and the Names of old Birmingham who lived through an 
early century and a half of what people call the " Middle 
* See before, pp. 18, 32. t See before, p. 11. 



82 CHARTERS, FROM A.D. 1401 

Ages," by the use of documents of a public character, I will 
now illustrate an equal length of time by the use of private 
Charters. Being in possession of a series of such Charters 
and other private documents relating to Birmingham, from 
the year 1401 down to the present time, I could give some- 
thing like a traditional Directory of the freeholders. But I 
Avill now only make from these a few selections, enough to 
illustrate (1) the transmission of names in the town from ge- 
neration to generation, and (2) the rise, from time to time, of 
fresh names which still are or lately were well known here. 

The names found in the Charters selected for illustration 
here, bring up several points in the history of surnames that 
deserve attention : for example, the manner in which sons 
were described during the lifetime of their fathers; the 
growth of the use of further means for distinguishment, 
when any settled surname had become common ; the use of 
an " alias " to bring in a second surname, in order to secure 
(not, as now, to prevent) identification ; the gradual intro- 
duction of " additions," that is, of the statement of the occu- 
pation of a man, over and above his surname, and not, as of 
old, to constitute the surname ; and, the changing forms of 
older names. 

The earlier Charters which I shall use, will make some 
men and names re-appear that have already become familiar. 
I quote these in order that the living series of old Birmingham 
men and names may be kept continuous, from the earliest 
time that I have touched upon down to the time where I 

shall cease. 

CHARTEE OF 1401. 
William Gest. Thomas son of Egbert o' the 

KiCHARD OP MaDELEY. GrENE. 

Egbert g' the Grene. Walter Bromwych. 

Eoger Smyth. Philip Shynglak. 

Ealph Gamull. John Shynglar. 
John son of Thomas Holdgn. 



TO A.D. 1426. 83 

CHAETEE OF 1404. 

ElCHAKD OF MaDELEY. JoHN CoUPER. 

Robert o^ the Grene. Walter Bromwych. 

William Gest and Joan liis wife. John Holdon. 
Thomas Holdon. Thomas o' the Grene. 

CHAETEE OF 1419. 
William Porter. John Couper Smyth. 

John Smyth so7i of Roger Smyth. Ralph Gamull. 
John Acton. John Couper Couper. 

Thomas Lokyer. William Pach [the modern 

Roger Smyth. ''Patch/' and perhaps "Page"] . 

In the last case a surname has, on the marriage of a 
daughter, become prefixed to the children's true surname ; 
and then, to prevent mistake, two cousins get each three 
names ; — John Cotcper Smyth, and John Couper Couper. This 
is not common at this early time. 

CHAETEE OF 1421. 

Thomas Mychell. Roger Smyth, 

William Smyth son of Roger John Couper Smyth. 

Smyth. John Holdon. 

Warin of Madley son of Rich- John Seggesley. 

ARD OF Madley. John son of Roger Smyth. 

Thomas son of William Gest John Acton. 

alias William Tolymoly. William Gest. 

CHAETEE OF 1426. 

William Rydware^ ilfas^er of the Thomas Layforde. 

Gild of the Holy Cross. Thomas Bernabroke. 

William Porter and Agnes his John Goldesmyth. 

wife. John Phelyps Chalonnere. 

William Waterball. John atte Mersh [sic]. 
John Mersh. 

In the name written John Phelyps Chalonnere, it would 
seem that the true name was John Phelyps (a name we have 
had before), and that "Chalonnere" was his occupation. It 



84 CPIARTERS, FROM A.D. 1476 

is not clear what a " chalonnere " meant. Probably it had 
something to do with being master of a ship or boat.* It 
may be thought unlikely that this should be so in a midland 
county ; but it is remarkable that Warwick itself found boat- 
swains for the king, by ancient custom, as we learn from 
the Domesday Bookf ; and an instance of another Warwick- 
shire master of a ship will presently be named. 

The next group of Charters that shall be taken, gives two 
names met with a century earlier, changed into their more 
modern forms ;j while most of the fresh names that now 
arise, have forms familiar to this day. 

CHAETEE OF 1476. 
Thomas Gestb. Richard Ball. 

Richard Andrewes. John Flavell. 

Robert Swypte. William Benet. 

Richard Smyth. Roger Pepewall. 

CHAETEE OF 1494. 
Humfrey Bawdryk. Humpry Shapley. 

Henry Shylton. William Benett. 

Sir William Berkeley. Thomas Yyterre [the modern 

Thomas Redhill. ''Fitter"]. 

John Lenche. 

Four years after the date of the last-named Charter, there 
began a suit at Law between some Birmingham men, which, 
bringing before us two names found in that Charter, intro- 
duces us also to two of the practising Attorneys of the time. 
Indeed, all the names mentioned in it have either been already 
met with or will presently be so. All are genuine Birming- 
ham names. 

I find by the original contemporary Eoll of the Court of 
Common Pleas, that, in Easter term a.b. 1500, Bichaed 

* Ducange, II., p. 322 (ed. 1842). But see Chaucer's Eeves Tale, I. 4138. 
t See the passage quoted in Parliamentary Hemembrancer, vol. v. p. 190. 
J See before, p. 64, 



TO A.D. 1517. 85 

Fenton, who was a Priest, brought an action of trespass 
against John Sheldon [the same name as Shylfon, Shilfon, 
Shelf on, etc.] and Humfrey Bawdrick [the "Bawdryk" of 
the last-qnoted Charter]. Eichard Fenton appeared " by 
John Boteler, his attorney," and stated his grievance. John 
Sheldon and Humfrey Bawdrick answered " by Humfrey 
Symondes, their attorney.'' In point of fact, it was a dis- 
pute about the ownership of certain property in the town, 
consistins^ of several Houses, but known bv the common 
name of "The New- wine-cellar" [imimi solarium vocatum 
le Newe-ivyne-seler cum perfinentihus in Byrmynghain pre- 
dictam, continens in se diversas domos.^ 

It must always be remembered, in looking at both the 
foregoing and the following examples, that it is the sound 
of a name that is the test of identity, and not the spelling. 
Very often, many different spellings of the same name are 
found in the same document.* 

CHAETEE OF 1517. 
Henry Shylton. Baldwin Broke, Master of the 

John Rogers. Gild of St. John the Baptist 

Thomas Hasturley. of Derytende. 

Richard Rossell. Ralph Forest. 

Simon Rydere. "William Simondes. 

In the Lease of 1518 from Edward Birmingham to John 
Rogers, of which I have published a facsimile,! there are 
found the names of " Roger Foxall, hy beyly off Brymy- 
cham for y yere ; William Niccols odyrwise cald Herch, 
constable off the same ; Rychard Swyft off the same." In 
the Charter of sale of the same property, in 1524, there 
are found the names of John Locok, Master of the Gild 

* See the examples o^ Lysle, Lislcy; and Prety, Praty, Pretie ; pp. 69, 89. 

t At the end of "Traditions of The Old Crown House." The name " Eogers' 
has already been found, under the disguise of " Eoggeres," among those who 
took part in the affray of 1431. See before, p. 80. 

G 



86 CHAETERS, FROM A.D. 1529 

of the Invention of the Holy Cross ; Hujmfrey Symondes ; 
and William Symondes. A few years later bring other 
fresh names before us. 

CHAETER OF 1529. 

John Eogees. John Geeve. 

Thomas Hastueley. William Hawkes. 

Thomas Geeves at the Hoee- Maueice Btddtll. 

STOK. Heney Osbuene. 

Ralph Foeest Richaed Russell. 

Ralph Beoee. Thomas Byhull. 

The name of Thomas Greves, with the descriptive addition 
" at the Horestok," recalls those early names of " atte wood," 
" atte holte," " atte gate," " atte chapel," etc., which had 
now long since ceased to appear in this form. But it was 
found necessary, for the same purpose of personal distinc- 
tion as begat those older names, to bring in again a form 
very much the same. 

The name of William Hawkes deserves notice, as an 
example of the same Christian and Sur-name handed down, 
from generation to generation, through several centuries, 
and then expiring. It is not yet a matter of years, it is 
barely a few months, since the death of Mr. William 
Hawkes, the lineal descendant of this ancient freeholder, 
and well known as the principal in the works of the Eagle 
Foundry in Broad Street. And from the first William 
Hawkes to the last, the name has remained a constant com- 
bination.* 

Hawkes, Hawkesford, and Hawkesley, are all Warwickshire 
names.f An earlier Hawkes showed a sort of enterprise that 

* My father bore the name of " William Hawkes " for Christian names, de- 
rived from the same stock, and in the same lineal degree, as the late Mr. 
William Hawkes. 

t Hawkes and Hawkesford intermarried, both sides being freeholders in 
Birmingham. (See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 54.) 



TO A.D. 1557. 87 

I think none of the family have since shown in the same 
manner. John Hawkes was Master of a ship called " The 
Trinity." Early in 1.S83, he brought over in that ship one 
EiCHARD Walssh, a priest, from Ireland to England. This 
was a bolder undertaking then than it would be now. It 
was a direct breach of the Law ; and John Hawives had to 
obtain a formal pardon from the Crown for the offence, in 
order to save his ship from forfeiture. The pardon, which 
he succeeded in obtaining, remains still duly recorded on 
the Patent Rolls. 

A charter of a few years later brings up some fresh facts 
of interest. 

CHAKTER OF 1551. 
EicHARD Smalbroke. John Betwiche. 

William Paynton. Morris Blocksiche. 

John Fetherston. John Newhay.* 

Thomas Fetherston. Pichaed Donne. 

William Walker, Tanner. 

Here we find the occupation distinctly stated, in the case 
of William Walker. In a Charter of six years later date, I 
find Ralph Broke, Scythe-smitli ; Thomas Kendall, Miller; 
and John Foxe, Cutler ; — the occupation now becoming often 
thus stated. The same Charter records the names of Smal- 
broke and Symons as Attorneys, apparently in partnership. 
In another of the same year, occurs the name of Thomas 
Marshe alias Mychell. 

A curious illustration is given, in the Charter of 1551, 
how, though many names have undergone very fantastic 
changes in spelling, and even often in sound, some odd ones 
have kept all their sound and nearly all their spelling un- 
changed. Betwiclie has probably changed into the name 
now known as Bettridge ; but Blocksiche has been preserved 

* See before, p. 41. 

G 2 



88 PLACES IN THE OLD TOWN. 

wholly unchanged in sound, and with only a slight change 
of spelling, as Blocksidge* 

CHAKTEE OF 1586. 

Thomas Fetherston, Furhearer. Eichakd Fokeeste son of Wil- 
JoHN Dyckson alias Bayleys. liam Fokreste. 

John Billingsley. Thomas Jesseppe. 

George Welche. Richard Welche. 

Richard Rotton. Edward Hayberd. 

CHAETEE OF 1589. 
Edward Rastell^ BraiDer. Thomas Allicocke. 

John Shilton, Mercer. John Jones. 

Thomas Apfeelde. Edward Rabone, 

William Bothe Jun^. 

The last of these Charters mentions names of places of 
old importance in the town, but which have now become 
forgotten. We are taken back to the buildings called " JFell- 
yarde, " in the street called " Corne Cliejpinge alias Come Mar- 
ket,'' and near to ''Mercers Streete'' and the " Easteyardey 

The names thus found in the Charters selected for the 
present illustrations, are all of them, with rare exceptions, 
those of men who, besides being indwellers in the town, 
were also freeholders there. I will now give the names of 
some of those who happen to have been recorded, under ex- 
traordinary circumstances, as tenants and indwellers, though 
unquestionably several of them were freeholders also. Some 
of the documents which I shall quote for this purpose, have 

* This name is found in West's Directory of 1830. I think West's Directory 
the safest of the modern ones for the present sort of comparison, as it was a 
tolerably full one made before whatever changes have been brought about 
by Eailway communication. A very interesting Directory is that of Pearson 
and Eollason (a.d. 1780), for the loan of which, with several others, I am 
indebted to the kindness of Mr. Samuel Timmins. I have taken the trouble, 
in every case, to trace the old names through the modern Directories ; but it 
would have seemed pedantic and tedious if I had encumbered these pages with 
the results. 



LEASE TO JOHN PRETY, GENT. 89 

a further special interest; inasmuch as they throw much 
light both on the old divisions of the town of Birmingham, 
and upon the old names of different places in it, whence 
many modern stieets have, though it is not commonly sus- 
pected, taken their names. 

On the 11th October, 1532, Edward Birmingham granted 
a remarkable Lease to John Prety,* of the Properties, and 
for the Terms of years, and at the Eents, that follow : — 

EDWAED BIRMINGHAM, Esquire, TO JOHN PRETY, Gen Isle]. 

"Water Mill to grynde corne, callid Heth Mill . . . with the 
water course T; all customes . . . wythin the lordeship of Bremy- 
cham T: within the parisshe of Aston ; " and 

Lands " callid the Conyngrt, wiche Roger Redill nowe occu- 
pietli ; " 

For ninety-nine years ; at the rent of £6. 1 '6s. ^d. a year. 

" Medowe lying nygh to the said Mill, which is callyd the Lake 
Medowe, inrevercion of one John Draper;" 

For ninety-nine years; at the rent of £6. 13s, 4<d. 

" The revercion of an other pasture the whiche one William Rus- 
sell now holdeth, . . . callyd Dodwalls;" 

For ninety-nine years ; at the rent of £1. 6.?. Qd. 

" Th^ ADVOWSON of parsonage % BENEPTCE of the CHURCHE of 

Sayncte Thomas the Martyr in Bremycham, called the parsonage of 
the priory, ... to geve T: to assigne immedyately after the decasse 
or resynacon of one Syr Edward Topte nowe being parson there ; " 

During the terms of years before named ; no rent, but a fine of 
£20. Os. Od. 

This Lease is witnessed by Rauf Warlev, George Germayns of 
Yardeley, John Smalbroke, John Geppries, and Symon Hegeyns. 

The corn mill named in this Lease, is the mill whence 
Heath Mill Lane takes its name. There was, besides this, 
a malt mill belonging to Edward Birmingham, of which we 
shall hear presently. Mills were generally a very profitable 

* Spoiled also, in the same Lease, " Pratj/ " and " Pretie." 



90 THE "FREE CHAPEL. 

part of manorial property, and sometimes a very harsh use 
was made by Lords of Manors of their ownership of mills. 
But Edward Birmingham was clearly an enlightened man. 
For he had already, on the 10th May, 1525, made an agree- 
ment with Thomas Holte, Lord of Aston,'' that the farmers 
and millers of the mills of Aston might " feche cary and re- 
cary al maner griste and corne of al maner greyn " for any 
tenants that pleased to employ them in Birmingham, and 
that the farmers and millers of the mills of Birmingham 
might do the same for the tenants of Aston. There is 
a liberality and enlightenment about this arrangement that 
must be rather startling to those who live in the faith that 
sound Political Economy is a modern discovery. 

But the " parsonage and benefice of the church of St. 
Thomas the Martyr " : — -what was that, and where is it 
now"? In the year 1532, it was a regular Church within the 
town, the advowson of which belonged to the Lords of Bir- 
mingham. This Church is what is elsewhere called the 
" Free Chapel." The Priory of Birmingham was dedicated 
to St. Thomas the Apostle : this " Free Cliapel " or Church 
was dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr. It was an altar in 
this Church which became the subject of an endowment in 
1350.t It was a Church much resorted to; for the Commis- 
sioners of Henry VIII. have themselves put it upon record 
that, in 1545, long after the date of this Lease, " the inhabi- 
tans of the same [town] dothe muche resorte to the same 
chapell for dyvyne servyce." But now, the very place thereof 
knoweth it no more. Not one stone stands upon another of 
a Church that was formerly one of great resort ; which was 
regularly endowed; which was a recognized benefice, and 

* The Lordship of Aston did not include all Aston Parish. On the other 
hand, the Lordship of Birmingham reached, as has been seen, far beyond Bir- 
mingham Parish, into Aston and Edgbaston. 

t See before, p. 39, etc. 



THE BELLS OF ST. MARTIN'S TOWER. 91 

had a regular parson ; and the nomination to the parsonage 
of which was an advowson forming part of the property of 
the Lord of the Manor. 

The good men of Deritend, the early but sincere Reformers 
of 1375, founded a Church for themselves which, though 
it was plundered, was yet saved through all the turmoil 
of Henry VIII. and Edward VI, ; and which still remains a 
place where men gather together to worship God. The Lord 
of Birmingham endowed a church in 1350, which, under the 
false cloak of zeal for a new Reformation, hungry courtiers 
not only plundered but utterly wiped out of existence in 
1547. The advowson of the "law-worth men" remains : the 
advowson of the " lord " has altogether gone.* 

It is a curious coincidence that, while other hungry men 
got other parts of the plunder of Birmingham, the two who 
appropriated the property of the Gild of Deritend, were the 
same who appropriated this " Free Chapel " and all that 
belonged to it.f 

While speaking of the Churches of Birmingham, I may 
mention that Birmingham men had a musical taste three 
hundred years ago. It is particularly recorded that, in the 
year 1552, there were, in old St. Martin's tower, "iiij Belles, 
with a clock and a chyme ;" which is a combination not often 
found. 

I now proceed to state who were the tenants of Edward 
Birmingham at the time when his estate was confiscated ;J 
and also who were the tenants of the Gilds of Deritend and 
of the Holy Cross, and of the Free Chapel and the two 
Chauntries, at the time when the word went forth for a ge- 
neral plunder, in the outraged name of religion, and by the 
means of a gross fraud practised upon Parliament. § 

* See the Note J to p. 24, and the Note § to p. 53. 
t See " Traditions of The Old Crown House, " p. 42. 
X Sec " Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 51-53. 
§ See "Traditions of The Old Crown House," pp. 36, 37. 



92 THE "borough" and "foreign." 

To understand some of the places named in the follomng 
statements, it must be now said (the facts having become 
strangely forgotten in modern times) that Birmingham con- 
sisted of the " Borough of Birmingham " and " Birmingham 
Foreign," a very usual mode of distinguishment in ancient 
places. Deritend was always a part of the town of so much 
importance that the whole is usually spoken of as the " Bo- 
rough of Birmingham and Deritend," though the separate 
parts are also often named. 

TENANTS AND TENANCIES OF THE LOED OF THE MANOE OF 
BIEMINGHAM, a.d. 1536-1545* 

Many freeholders, whose names are not given, but who paid 
"rents of assize" [i. e. quit-rents] for their freeholds. The following 
ancient rents, in kind, are specified : — 

William Lenche, heir of William Goldesmythe, one pound of 
pepper. 

The Master of the Gild of the Holy Cross, hvo ijounds of pepper. 

John Sheldon, one piound of cumin, one hoio, and six harhed holts 
{catapidta harhata-f). 

Lands and houses in Birmingham Foreign, held by, — 

Thomas Waryng, land near Shawmore, formerly held by John 

* I have carefully gone over and compared several sets of Eobert Whytworth's 
accounts, and compared them also with the Grant made to John Dudley on 21st 
Dec. 1545. Yarious readings found by these comparisons, which seemed likely to 
throw any light on modern names of places, I have inserted between brackets. 
The statement of names and tenancies is thus complete down to 1545. The other 
accounts are all of 1547, compared with other documents. So that all these 
lists give pictures of strictly contemporaneous facts. I have in no case trusted to 
a single document, without further comparison. 

+ " £oU, Pilum vel telum catapulticum." {Junius.) And see after, p. 95. 

It was said nearly thirty j^ears ago, by one of the most distinguished of English 
Antiquaries, that actual rents reserved in hind were even then hardly known 
'in England. If this be true, it is worth recording that, within my own memory, 
two pieces of land in the possession of my father's family were held by ancient 
rents reserved partly in kind ; the rent of the one being so much money, and a 
goose, the rent of the other being so much money, and a pot of apples. It is no 
longer ago than 1842 that Mr. Brooke Smith and myself, as the representatives of 
those interested, were parties to the sale of one of the lands held, up to the last, 
on one of these ancient tenures in hind. 



ANCIENT HOMESTEADS. 93 

Sterkey ; and a pasture called Slyng, opposite tlie park of Birming- 
ham. 

John Garnett^ a croft called Hilfeld [Hilcropt] . 

John Ellyott, a croft called Steledenys [Steledeanes], in Somer 
Lane [Somer-lond], formerly held by Hugh Flete. 

John Bonde, a pasture or wood called Worston^ and another pas- 
ture called Wyatfeld. 

Richard Furnyvall and Roger Foxoll [Foxhole], a pasture called 

HUNT-CROFTE [HuNCROFTE] . 

Robert Myddelmore, lands called Lady crofte, Goldhelme, and 
HuNGRE Hill. 

John Fetherston, a crofte called Lordes-pelds, in Bordesley. 

Robert Whytworth [who was bailiff of the manor : no doubt be- 
cause he was the largest tenant] , a pasture called Wheat-pelds ; a 
meadow called Malte-myl-medowe ; a pasture called Holme Parke ; 
another meadow called The Launds, near to the Holme Parke ; a 
pasture called Crab-tre-crofte [Crabcropte] ; land opposite the 
moat of the manor house, called Calp-crofte [Calcrofte] ; and, a 
Mill called The Malte-myll. 

John Wylleys [Willies], a meadow called Mydel-myl-medowe. 

Roger Foxoll, a meadow called But Medowe [Butte Medowe],* 
and a pasture called Heth-peld [HethePeild] in Dyretend. 

John Prattye, a corn mill called The Hethe Myll [as before 
stated from the Lease to John " Prety ^'] . 

William Rastall, a house in Eggebaston Street, formerly held by 
Robert Smyth. 

Humprey Swanne, a house in Eggebaston Street. 

[John Rawlyns, a house in Egbaston Street.] 

William Russell, pastures called The Dudwall [included in the 
Lease to John Prety] . 

John Shilton, nine pastures and meadows adjoining, called The 
Hay-barnes [Heyberns] ; and eight meadows and pastures adjoining-, 
called Greate Russells and Lytell Russells. 

Thomas Cowper, five crofts called Patchetts Lands. 

Richard Russell, lands called Colbornb-felds. 

William Lynche, a pasture called Mychbl-he3e [Michelhay] in 
Eggebaston. 

* This points clearly to the old practice of shooting, which no place neglected. 
See hereon, " The Parish," pp. 249, 497, 518, 519, 520. 



94 ROTTON park: kylcuppe. 

John Peaty^ as farmer of the office of Keeper of the Park called 
EoTTON [Roten] Parke^ with all the profits thereof, and the ^Svyndefal 
wood and lopwood/^ building timber excepted, in reversion of one 
Thomas Gylbeet then Keeper of the Park.* 

John Deapee, a meadow called Lake-medowe^ with the moor there 
[see the Lease to John Prety] . 

[Two houses in Egbaston Street, called The Washyng Stole, and 
The Payntees Howse.] 

Maeia EYDDELL^t relict of RoGEE Ryddell, three pastures called 
Byechells [Byeche-hill], and two meadows called Geeate Buck- 
stalls and Lytell Buckstalls, and a pasture called The Conyngee 
[included in the Lease to John Prety] .J 

The Borough of Birmingham, held by, — 

Thomas Holte, sls, farmer of the rents and profits of '' all that part 
or portion of the Manor of Byrmyngehame called The Boeough oe 

* This mention of Eotton Park deserves some notice. It is well known that 
a family of the name of Eotton has long dwelt in Birmingham. IS'ot meeting 
with the name in the older records of the town, I infer that this old manorial park 
gave the family its name, not the family its name to the park. But the family 
became freeholders of high respectability, many of them dwelling in Bordesley. 
Of this I have proofs among my private documents (one has been already cited 
uuder the year 1586). But the fact is very strikingly illustrated by the history of an 
old Bordesley Charity founded by Eichaed Kylcuppe, who, on 19th September, 
1611, devised to Eobert Shilton and John Foxe certain land at Sparkbrook, upon 
trusts which he was curiously but wdsely careful to order should be always re- 
cited on every change of trustees. The controllers of the trust were required to 
be, all of them, " yeomen, freeliolders, and inhabitants, of Bordesley." In 1612, 
out of the eight only persons that fulfilled these conditions, four were " Ambrose 
Eotton, Eichard Eotton, Thomas Eotton, and John Eotton." It is remarkable, 
and very instructive, that this Charity altogether escaped the notice of the roving 
Charity Commissioners who were sent out, some years ago, to find out the naked- 
ness of the land. But its course has nevertheless been remarkably regular. 
Somewhat familiar with this sort of subject, I confess to surprise at the com- 
pleteness of the manner in which the donor's intentions have been observed. 
The proceeds of the charity are still annually distributed in accordance with 
those intentions. I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. John Webb for the op- 
portunity of examining the whole series of documents, from the indenture of 
1612 to the cards for distribution of the Charity at Christmas last. 

t Confusion must be avoided between the odd spellings of the three very diffe- 
rent names, Redhill (here Ryddell: and Reddell in a.d. 1830); Byddyll (the modern 
Biddle) ; and Byliull (which has, I think, sunk into the modern "Bill ")• 

J All these places are near Bradford Street; and the nauie Buckstalls is strongly 
significant of the time when there was a large park there. See before, pp. 49, 71. 



TENANTS OF THE OLDEST GILD. 95 

Byrmyngkhame and Dyretende ;'' except one house and garden in 
Deritend [now part of The Old Crown House estate] , and two houses 
and gardens in Eggebaston Street^ and one close held by Humfrey 
SwANNE ; and except the services of the " hrode arroives " and " brode 
arrowliedds," and of j>ejipe?-, within the said Borough and Dyretend ; 
and except the goods of felons beyond forty shillings. 

Thomas Holte had been made Steward of the manor of 
Birmingham by Edward Birmingham ; and Robert Whyt- 
WOKTH was his Bailiff. So no doubt they now made a very 
good thing out of it between them. 

Edward Birmingham himself survived the great wrong he 
had suffered but a short time. After his death, the annuity 
of £20, reserved to him by the Act confiscating the manor,* 
was doubled, in favour of his widow, by Letters Patent of 1st 
February 1539. She did not remain his widow long; but 
nevertheless received the doubled annuity for many years, as 

ELIZiVBETH LUDFOllD. 

The particulars as to tenancies are not recorded as fully 
in all other cases as they are in the case of the manorial 
property. I give the tenants' names, with some particulars 
of their tenancies. 

TENANTS AND TENANCIES OF THE GILD OF ST. JOHN THE 
BAPTIST OF DEEITEND, a.d. 1547. 

Ealph Forest^ land in Deritend. 
Ealph Brooke^ land there. 
Thomas Cottrell, a house there. 
William Forest, a house there. 
William Burton, a house there. 
Seth Walthew, a house there. 
William Swexson, a house there. 
Thomas Syre, a house there. 
John Lepper, a house there. 
John Bloxwiche, a house there. 

* See " Traditions of The Old Crown House," p. 53. 



96 TENANTS OF THE "FREE CHAPEL," 

Thomas Maeshall^ a house in Biemingham called The Lion. 
HuMPEEY CoTTERELL^ a liouse there. 
Thomas Walter^ a liouse in Aston. 
Nicholas Coke op Aston^, land there. 
• John Newey^ a house in Newey in the Parish of Aston.* 
Baldwin Broke^ three closes of land and a meadow in Bordesley. 
John Fetheeston^ several pieces of land there. 
James Mershe^ a piece of land there. 
Roger More, a house and meadow there. 
Alice Michell^ a house and close of land there. 
Richard Newey, a piece of land there. 
Marion Beokehuest^ a close of land in Moseley. 
The Waedens op the ChapeLj a meadow there. 
Hugh Collins [Colyb] , land in Saltley. 

GoLDiNGALE^ a house in Castle Bromwich. 

John Milwarde^ a house and lands in Handswoeth. 
Richard Fletcher, a meadow in Eedington. 

TENANTS AND TENANCIES OF THE FEEE CHAPEL OF 
BIEMINGHAM, a.d. 1547. 

The heirs of Thomas Holte, a meadow in Dudeston. 

John Yeysey, a meadow called Shawe-medowe ; a close called 
Brome-close ; and another close called The Chappell Orchaede. 

Richard Weley, a close and meadow at the Horne Broke. 

Roger Clowse, two closes called The Beome-closes_, and a meadow 
in Wallmee Lane. 

HuMPEEY Colchestee, a close called The Chappell Conigee. 

William Bodgye, a close called the Hoese-close. 

Thomas Maeshall, a pasture called The Roundhills. 

William Mychell, lands in Biemingham. 

John Payntee, a house near the burying-ground. 

Maeia Veenon, a house and croft in Moee Street.f 

Heney Yenton, a garden in New Street. 

Robert Collins_, certain lands " viz. v. fold." 

John Geyppythe, a house in the Chappell Street. 

* See before, p. 41. 

t Moor Street was usually called "Molle" Street at this time. Seethe 
list of the tenants of the Gild of the Holy Cross. 



CHAUNTRIES, AND SECOND GILD. 



97 



John Cockes, a house there, 
Henry Biddell, certain lands. 
William Colemore, quit rents. 

TENANTS OF THE FIRST CHAUNTIIY, a.d. 1547 * 

John Paynter. Maria Vernon. 

William Peynton. Ealph Sergeant. 

Egbert Butler. Ealph Eussell. 

Thomas Hawkes. Elen Flavell. 

EicHARD Butler. Thomas Marshall. 

Egbert Michell. Henry Foxhall. 

Egger Michell. Eichard Brandwood. 

ElCHARD BrOKHURST. 

TENANTS OF THE SECOND CHAUNTRY, a.d. 1547. 
John Aleyne. Egbert Colmgre. 

John Veysey. John Bygg. 

William Hgrwell. 

TENANTS AND TENANCIES OF THE GILD OF THE 
HOLY CROSS, A.D. 1547.t 

Egbert Porter^ house in Egebaston Street. 

William King^ house in Well Street. 

Eichard Swyft, house in Engltshb Street. 

Thomas Cowper^ house at the Highe Crosse called The Mayden 
hede. 

Heirs of Nicholas Baylie, house in the Bull ring, and another 
in Newe Street. 

Egbert Eastell, croft in Godes Cart Lane. 

Edward Taylor, house in Deryatknd, next the house of Thomas 
Greves. 

The Incumbent of the Free Chapel, [land called] Shawmore. 

William Philippes, a garden near Molle Strete Barres; a 
house at Molle Strete Ende j and a garden in Parke Street, near 
a barn of the Gild. 

William Lane, a house near The Peacocke. 

* There are not such particulars given of the tenancies of tlie Cliauntries as I 
have found in other cases. 

t The separate tenancies were much smaller, in general, in this case than in 
any of the others. Hence the great number of tlie tenants. 



98 OLD STREETS, AND 

The heirs of Rastell^ a house in the Englishe Markett. 
William Paynton, a house near Molle Steete Barkes. 
HuMPEEY Jorben^ a house called Whyte Harte. 
John Bonde, a house in Deryatend, near Heath Myll. 
John Shylton, a house in Molle Street called Tenter Crofte ; 
and a house in Dygbathe, lately of Thomas Walton. 
EoBERT Myddelmore, a house in Egebaston Street. 

Lands and houses in Dalend, held by, — 

Henry Russell. John Shylton. 

Roger Clowse. William Solemore [? mistake 
John Nicholls (at Dale End for Golemore]. 

Barres). Agnes Walton. 

John Elyat (The Dale Hall). Christian Harryson. 

Lands and houses in Chappell [now Bull] Street,* held by, — 

John Yessete (lands called The John Elyatt. 
FoLDEs). John Massye. 

Lands and houses in Englishe Markett, held by, — 

Richard Smalbroke (house call- Robert Preston (near Molle- 

ed The Well). strete). 

Richard Alatt. Robert Colyns. 

Thomas Sompnor. John Elyat. 
John Vessey (near Redehill). 

Lands and houses in Newe Street, held by, — 

William Bodgye. William Sheldon (near Feck 

William Elson. [afterwards Peck] Lane). 

Thomas Hudson. 

* It is to be regretted that so many of the oldest streets and places in Bir- 
mingham have had their names changed. Several of the names given before, 
p. 88, and in the present list, will be new to most readers. Some (but not all) 
of these names will be found on comparing Westley's Plan (a.d. 1731) and Brad- 
ford's Plan (a.d. 1751). 

I must take this opportunity of acknowledging the liberal courtesy of Mr. 
Westley E-ichards, who has furnished me with sets of new impressions printed 
from the plates engraved by his ancestor more than 130 years ago. 



THEIR INDWELLERS. 99 

Sho])s in High Street, held by, — 
Thomas Yemont. Thomas Baker, 

John Weley. William Peynton (in The Sham- 

John Shylton. bles). 

Lands and houses in the Molle [now Moor] Street, held by, — 

William Peynton. Elizabeth Crassher. 

EoGER Hawkes. John Smythe. 

John Vessey. Hamon Hatton. 

EicHARD Walker. Alice Skyllett. 

Thomas Yemons. Henry Bagley. 

John Shylton. Maria Vernon. 

Thomas Marshall. 

Lands, cottages, barns, and buildings in Egebaston Street, 

held by, — 

Eichard Smalbroke. Thomas Makworthe. 

William Bodgye. William Corpson. 

EoGER Davyes. Elizabeth Baker. 

William Symondes. Henry Burcott. 

Ellen Lokyer. John Shylton. 

Lands and stables in Mercers [now Spiceal] Street, held by, — 

John Shilton. Elizabeth Jackson. 

Thomas Marshall. Henry Wylson. 

Thomas Preston. near Walstwoodes house. 

Lands and houses in Bull-ring, held by, — 

John Shylton. Thomas Marshall. 

Egbert Eastell (at The Pyn- Egbert Spurrier. 

fold). William Peynton. 

William Michell. 

Lands and cottages in Well Street [top of Digbetii], held by, — 
Joan Baylie. Thomas Priest. 

Thomas Shorte. William Wyllington. 

William Foxhall. Agnes Harper. 

Barns and gardens in Parke Street, held by, — 
Egbert Eastell. William Peynton (near Godes 

Cart lane). 



100 THE GILD HALL, AND ITS OFFICERS. 

House in Deryatend, held by Richard Clerkson. 

Lands, ^pastures^ and houses, in the Foreign of Birmingham, 

held by, — 

John Shylton (Longe Croft, Richard Walker. 

near Lake-medowe).* Henry Gest. 

John Vessie. John Osborne. 

Richard Smalbroke. Richard Ricroft. 

Henry Byddell. Roger Cloves. 

Henry Foxhall. 

Four cottages between Mercers Street and Newe Street, 

held by, — 

Elizabeth Palmer. Thomas Groves (two cottages, 

Cristofer Bayley. rent free) . 

Besides this long list of names, I find that the Gild of the 
Holy Cross, being musical, had an organist (pulsator organi), 
William Bothe by name ; — the father, no doubt, of the Wil- 
liam Bothe already named, who writes himself " Wm. Bothe, 
Junr."-\ He had a handsome salary. They had also a clerk 
of the Gild, whose name is unhappily not recorded in its 
proper place. One Thomas Groves, no doubt he who lived 
rent free in two of the Gild's cottages, was keeper of the 
house and gardens of the Gild ; that house being known by 
the names (used indifferently) of " The Town Hall, other- 
wise called The Gild Hall."| There was also an officer call- 
ed " The Belman "; but his name, like the Gild-clerk's, must 
remain for the present unknown to fame, there being an un- 
lucky blank left for this, as for some few other names, in 
the old manuscript before me. 

It has been already seen how great a number of indepen- 
dent freeholders there certainly was in Birmingham as early 

* The names of some of the other lands here, are given in the Grant to the 
Free School, as Bynges, Rotten Fields, Walmores, and Seyncte Mary Wood. 
t See before, p. 88. + See before, p. 79. 



BIRMINGHAM, PAST AND PRESENT. 101 

as the middle of the fourteenth century.* The long lists of 
indwellers just given, recall those who were lining and mov- 
ing as heads of families in the town exactly two hundred 
years later. And if the facts are marshalled, — by recollec- 
tion, to those who know the place : by a glance at any map, 
old or new, to those who do not, — it will be seen that ex- 
actly the same parts and streets were the busiest three hun- 
dred years ago that are so now. From Deritend, up Digbeth, 
Well Street, Corn Cheping, Bull Ring, High Street, English 
Market, Dale End and Bull [Chapel] Street : — on the right. 
Park Street, Moor Street, Carrs [Godes Cart] Lane : — on the 
left, Edgbaston Street, Spiceal [Mercers] Street, New Street. 
Here is the busy Birmingham of to-day, found full of life and 
activity, in the same parts, more than three hundred years 
ago. Dot down, along each of these streets, and in the out- 
lying parts, the houses and places that are named in even no 
more than the nine foregoing pages ; and a populous town 
rises at once before the eye. Let it be borne in mind, that 
what has been thus named takes in no more than the private 
estate of the Lord of the Manor (not his manorial jurisdic- 
tion, nor even the freeholders paying quit rents), and the 
estates of five corporate Bodies within the place ; and that 
the properties of all the many private freeholders have to be 
added to these. With these facts recalled, the Birmingham 
of three hundred years ago, and of the ages before, will be 
better understood than it has heretofore been. 

While the physical facts now for the first time made 
known, will remain henceforth ineff'aceable note-marks, they 
cannot themselves be fully understood, nor give a true view 
of the town's past life and steady growth, unless there be 
reckoned together with them that which has been the leaven 
of the whole, without which it would long since have been 
lifeless and dead, instead of showing itself full of a growing 

* See before, p. 36. 

H 



102 BIEMINGHAM, PAST AND FUTURE. 

and transmitted vigour ; namely, the spirit of the Institutions 
that formed the atmosphere in which the men of Birming- 
ham lived in past ages, and the habits of life under which, 
animated by this spirit, they groAv up to be men.* That self- 
interest and material self-gratification shall be the ends to 
be aimed at, is what Governments that smother freedom and 
cherish despotism seek to make the doctrine and the practice 
of man's life. That every man owes a duty, and a full share 
of his time in order to fulfil that duty, to his neighbours and 
to his country, is the doctrine and the practice whence Eng- 
land has drawn the living breath of freedom through past 
ages ; and it is this doctrine and this practice, on the stead- 
fast upholding of which the freedom, the prosperity, and the 
true Progress, now and hereafter, of England, and of Bir- 
mingham as a vital part of England, assuredly depend. 

* See before, pp. 9, 10, 20, 24, etc. 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Acton, John, 83. 

Affeelde, Thomas, 88. 

Agate, 33. 

ALatt, Eichard, 98. 

Aleyne, John, 97. 

Allicocke, Thomas, 88. 

Andrewes, Richard, 84. 

Arblastre, Richard, 80. 

Attwood, 14, 15. 

Ault, 32. 

Aygnelet (Inkleys, Ingley, Ingall), 

William, 28, 31, 32. 
Aylet, 32. 

B. 

Bagley, Henry, 99. 

Baker, Thomas, 99. 

Baker, Elizabeth, 99. 

Ball, Richard, 84. 

Barber, John, 78. 

Barre, Roger of little, 29, 32. 

Barrow, 32. 

Bawdryk (Bawdrick), Humfrey, 84, 

85. 
Bawe, Joan, 28, 31,32. 
Bayley, Christofer, 100. 
Bayleys, John Dyckson alias, 88. 
Baylie, Nicholas, 97. 
Baylie, Joan, 99. 
Belne, Thomas of, 0,7, 69. 
Bene (Bever), Richard, 57, 67, 69. 
Bene, Adam, 57. 



Benet, 64. 

Benet (Benett), William, 84. 

Bergevenny, Joan, Lady of, 80. 

Bernabroke, Thomas, 83. 

Berkeley, Sir William, 84. 

Bettridge, 87. 

Betwiche, John, 87. 

Bidden, Henry, 97, 100. 

Biddle (Byddyll), 94 note. 

Bill, 94 note. 

Billingsley, John, 88. 

Birmingham, Edward, 89, 90, 91, 95. 

Birmingham, Fulco of, 19, 40, 41, 42. 

Birmingham, John, 19. 

Birmingham, John the Deyseer of, 

36, 37, 38. 
Birmingham, Sir John of, 57, 61, 78. 
Birmingham, Roger the Barber of, 

18, 37. 
Birmingham, Thomas, 19. 
Birmingham, William of, 18, 19, 27, 

28, 32. 
Birmingham, Walter of, 17, 18. 
Blocksiche, Morris, 87. 
Blocksidge, 88. 
Bloxwiche, John, 95. 
Bodgye, William, 96, 98, 99. 
Bonde, John, 93, 98. 
Boteler (Botteley, Butler), Geoffry, 

57, 64. 
Boteler, John, 85. 
Botdler, Richard, 78. 
Botetourte, John, 41. 



104 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Bothe, William, 100. 

Bothe, William, Junr., 88, 100. 

Brandwood, Hicliard, 97. 

Brindejone, 19. 

Broke (Brooke), Ealpli, 86, 87, 95. 

Broke, Baldwin, 85, 96. 

Broke, Peter atte, 29, 32. 

Broke, Kichard of, 57, 64. 

Brokekurst, Marion, 96. 

Brokliurst, Eicliard, 97. 

Brokesby, Henry, 80. 

Brooke, Brooks, Broke, 16, 33. 

Bromwycli, Walter, 82, 83. 

Burcott, Henry, 99. 

Burgeys, Jolin, 36, 37. 

Burne, Hugh, 78. 

Burton, William, 95. 

Butler, Eobert, 97. 

Butler, Eichard, 97. 

Buttort, Sir John, 57. 

Byddyll, Maurice, 86, 94 note. 

Bygg, John, 97. 

ByhuU, Thomas, 86, 94 note. 

C. 

Caldewell, Henry of, 40. 
Carpenter, John the, 28, 32, 34. 
Chalonnere, John Phelyps, 83. 
Chapelle, Eichard atte, 40. 
Chattok, Thomas, 57, 64. 
Chewe, John, 80. 

Cissor (Carver), Hamon, 28, 31, 32. 
Clerkson, Eichard, 100. 
Clodeshale, John of, 28, 32, 35. 
Clodeshale, Walter of, 35. 
Clodeshale, Eichard of, 35, 39. 
Cloves, Eoger, 100. 
Clowse, Eoger, 96, 98. 
Cockes, John, 97. 
Cofton, Geoffry of, 28, 32. 
Coke (Cook), Sir Edward, 15. 
Coke, Nicholas, of Aston, 96. 
Colchester, Humfrey, 96. 
Colemon, Henry, 36. 
Colemon, WiUiam, 36, 37. 
Colemore, William, 97, 98. 
Coleyn, John, 40. 
Collins (Colye), Hugh, 96. 
Collins, Eobert, 96. 



Colmore, Eobert, 97. 

Colsull (Coleshill, Colleshull), John 

of, 36, 37, 76, 77. 
Colyns, Eobert, 98. 
Cooke, Henry, 80 (see " Weoley"). 
Cooke, John, 80. 
Cope, 64. 

Corbyn, William, 28, 31, 32. 
Corbyn, John, 36. 
Corbyn, Thomas, 36. 
Corpson, William, 99. 
Cottrell, Thomas, 95. 
Cottrell, Humfrey, 96. 
Couper, William, 57, 64. 
Couper, John, 83. 
Couper, John Couper, 83. 
Coventry and Lichfield, Eobert 

bishop of, 57, 61. 
Cowper, Thomas, 93, 97. 
Crassher, Elizabeth, 99. 
Cutte, John, 80. 

D. 

Dale, 33. 

Dale, Nicholas in the, 28, 29, 32. 

Dapifer, Peter, 18, 81. 

Davyes, Eoger, 99. 

Daye, Clarice the, 28, 32, 34. 

Deritend (Der-yat-end), 70, 71. 

Dod, William, 57, 64. 

Dodd, Dodson, 64. 

Dodeston (Duddeston), William of, 

28, 32. 
Donne, Eichard, 87. 
Draper, John, 89, 94. 
Dudley, Isabella, Lady of, 78. 
Dudley, John, Viscount Lisle, 69 

note. 
Dyckson alias Bayleys, John, 88. 

E. 

Ellyott, John, 93. 
Elyat (Ely att), John, 98. 
Elson, William, 98. 

F. 

Fauconer, Thomas, 80. 
Fenton, Eichard, 85. 
Fetherston, John, 87, 93, 96. 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



105 



Fetherston, Thomas, 87, 88. 
Fitter {see " Vyterre "). 
Flaumvile, Robert, 57, 04, 81. 
Flavell, John, 84. 
FlaveU, Elen, 97. 
Fletcher, Richard, 96. 
Flete, Hugh, 93. 
Fokeram, Richard, 28, 31. 
Forest, Ralph, 85, 86, 95. 
Forest, William, 95. 
Forreste, Richard son of William, 88. 
Foxall (Foxhole, Foxoll), Roger, 

85, 93. 

Foxhall, Henry, 97, 100. 
Foxhall, William, 99. 
Foxe, John, 87, 94 note. 
Fraunceys, John, 80. 
Frewes, John, 36, 37. 
Furnyvall, Richard, 93. 
Fychelere, John the, 36, 37, 38. 
Fylongley, Henry, 80. 

G. 

Gamull, Ralph, 82, 83. 

Garnett, John, 93. 

Gate, Roger atte, 28, 32, 33. 

Gates, 33. 

Geffon (Geffen), WiUiam, 65 note, 67, 

69, 78. 
Geffries, John, 89. 
Germa3ms, George, of Yardeley, 89. 
Gest, WiUiam, 82, 83. 
Gest, Joan, 83. 
Gest alias Tolymoly, Thomas son of 

William, 83, 84. 
Gest, Henry, 100. 
Gilbert, John son of, 36, 39. 
Gilberts, Gilbertson, Gibson, 39. 
Glover, John, 80. 
Goldingale, 96. 
Goldesmyth, William, 92. 
Goldsmyth, John, 76, 77, 83. 
Grene, Robert o' the, 57, 61, 63, 64, 

67, 69, 78, 82, 83. 
Grene, Thomas son of Robert o' the, 

82, 83. 
Greve, John, 86. 
Greves, Thomas, at the Horestok, 

86, 97. 



Groves, Thomas, 100. 
Gryffythe, John, 96. 
Gylbert, Thomas, 94. 

H. 
Harper, Agnes, 99. 
Harryson, Christian, 98. 
Hasturley, Thomas, 85, 86. 
Hatton, Hamon, 99. 
Hawkes, Hawkesford, Hawkesley,86. 
Hawkes, John, 87. 
Hawkes, Roger, 99. 
Hawkes, Thomas, 97. 
Hawkes, William, 86. 
Hayberd, Edward, 88. 
Herch, 85. 

Hegeyns, Symon, 89. 
Hey, 41. 
Holden, 64. 
Holdon, John, 83. 

Holdon, Jolin son of Thomas, 82, 83. 
Holdon, Thomas, 57, 64, 67, 69, 83. 
Holte, 14, 15, 33. 
Holte, Thomas, 90, 94, 95, 96. 
Holte, John atte, 36, 37. 
Horestok, Thomas Greves at the, 86. 
Horwell, William, 97. 
Hudson, Thomas, 98. 
Huwet (Hewitt), Simon, 57, 64. 

I. 

Ingall, 32. 
Ingley, 32. 

J. 

Jackson, Elizabeth, 99. 

Jeffe, William, 57, 64, 69. 

Jeffs, 64. 

Jesseppe, Thomas, 88. 

John, Thomas son of, 36, 39. 

Johnson, 39. 

Jones, John, 88. 

Jorden, Humfrey, 98. 

Jori (Jolly), William, 28, 31, 32. 

Jori, Edith, 28. 

Judden, Richard, 40. 

K. 
Keen, Keau, 34. 
Kempe, John, 40. 
Kendall, Thomas, 87. 



106 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Xene, Alexander tlie, 28, 32. 
King, William, 97. 
Kokeyn, Ealph, 28, 31. 
Kylcuppe, Eicliard, 94 note. 
Xynges, William tlie, 36, 39. 



Lane, William, 97. 

Layforde, Thomas, 83. 

Lee, William, 80. 

Lenche, John, 84. 

Lenche, William, 92, 93. 

Lepper, John, 95. 

Lisle, Lysle, Lisley, 69 note. 

Lichfield, see Coventry. 

Little wood, 15. 

Locok, John, 86. 

Lokyer, Thomas, 83. 

Lokyer, Ellen, 99. 

Lord, John, 80. 

Loudham, John, 80. 

Lowe, Humphrey, 72. 

Ludford, Elizabeth, 95. 

Lumbard, Eichard, 28, 31, 32. 

Lynche, William, 93. 

M. 

Madeley, Eichard of, 82, 83. 
Madley, Warin of, sou of Eichard of, 

83. 
Maidenhacche, Thomas of, 19, 26, 29, 

32. 
Makworthe, Thomas, 99. 
Makynton, Eoger of, 28, 32. 
Mareschal, Thomas, 36, 37. 
Margery, William son of, 36, 39. 
Marshall, Thomas, 96, 97, 99. 
Marshe alias Mychell, Thomas, 87. 
Massye, John, 98. 

Mercer, Alexander the, 28, 32, 34, 40- 
Mercer, William the, 40. 
Mersh, John,, 83. 
Mersh, John atte, 83. 
Mershe, James, 96. 
Mey, William the, 36, 37, 38. 
Michel, John, 40. 
Michel, Thomas, 40. 
Michel], Alice, 96. 
Michell, William, 96, 99. 



Michell, Eobert, 97. 
Michell, Eoger, 97. 
Mychell, Thomas, 83, 87. 
Middelmore, Thomas of, 78. 
Milwarde, John, 96. 
Mole, 34. 
More, Eoger, 96. 
Morys, Geoffry, 36. 
Morys, Henry, 36, 37. 
Morys, John, 80. 
Moul, Eoger the, 28, 32, 34. 
Murdak, John, 19. 
Myddelmore, Eobert, 93, 98. 

Nash, 33. 

Nasshe, Eichard atte, 28, 32, 33 

JSTecheles, John, 80. 

Newenham, Thomas of, 67, 70. 

Neuport, William of, 36, 37. 

Neowehay, William of the, 40, 41, 

ISTewhay, John, 87. 

Newey, 41. 

Newey, John, 96. 

!N"ewey, Eichard, 96. 

JSTiccols, WiUiam, 85. 

Nicholls, John, 98. 

Osborne, John, 100. 
Osburne, Henry, 86. 



Pach, William, 83. 

Packewode, Adam of, 36, 37. 

Page, Eobert, 36, 37. 

Pakynton (Pakington) John of, 28, 

32. 
Palmer, Elizabeth, 100. 
Parys, John, 36, 37. 
Patch, Page, 83. 
Paynter, John, 96, 97. 
Paynton, William, 87, 98. 
Penford, John, 80. 
Pepewall, Eoger, 84. 
Peynton (Peyton), Thomas, 80, 81. 
Peyuton, William, 97, 98, 99. 
Phelipp, Thomas, 78. 
Phelyps, John, Chalonnere, 83. 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



107 



Philip (Phelipp), John, 40, 41, 78. 

Philippes, "William, 97. 

Porter, Agnes, 83. 

Porter, John the, 36, 37. 

Porter, William, 83. 

Porter, Eobert, 97. 

Preston, Robert, 98. 

Preston, Thomas, 99. 

Prety (Praty, Prattye, Prctie), John, 

89, 93, 94. 
Preust, Eoger, 28, 31, 32. 
Priest, Thomas, 99. 

E. 

Eabone, Edward, 88. 

Eagg, 34. 

Eaggede, Cristiana the, 28, 32, 34. 

Eaggede, John the, 40, 41. 

Ealegh, Thomas, 77. 

Eastall, William, 93. 

Eastell, 98. 

Eastell, Eobert, 97, 99. 

Eastell, Edward, 88, 

Eawlyns, John, 93. 

Eea, 71. 

Eedhill, Thomas, 84, 94 note. 

Eedill, Eoger, 89. 

Eicroft, Eichard, 100. 

Eider, Eichard, 74, 75. (See " Eyd- 

ware.") 
Eogers, John, 85, 86. 

Eoggeres, Hugh, 80. 

Eokeby (Eugby), Simon of, 29, 32. 

Eoper (Eubraspatha, Eospear, Eous- 
pee, Eooper), 17. 

Eotton, Eichard, 88, 94 note. 

Eotton, Ambrose, 94 note. 

Eotton, Thomas, 94 note. 

Eotton, John, 94 note. 

Eugby, Eanulph of, 19, 27. 

Eussell, Eicliard, 85, 86, 93. 

Eussell, Thomas, 80. 

Eussell, William, 89, 93. 

Eussell, Ealph, 97. 

Eussell, Henry, 98. 

Eustin (Euston, Euxton), 15. 

Eyddell, Maria, 94, and note. 

Eyddell, Eoger, 94. 



Eyder, John, 80. 
Eydere, Simon, 85. 
Eydware, William, 83. 

S. 

Seggesley, John, 80, 83. 

Sergeant, Ealph, 97. 

Shapley, Humfrey, 84. 

Shaw, 33. 

Shawe, William of the, 29, 32, 33. 

Shefeld, Alexander, 80. 

Sheldon (Shylton, Shilton, Shelton), 

John, 85, 88, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100. 
Sheldon, Thomas of, 76, 77. 
Sheldon, William, 98. 
Shilton, Eobert, 94 note. 
Shirynton (Sheryngton), Eichard of, 

40, 78. 
Shobenhale, Sir Eichard, 46, 57, 62. 
Sliorte, Thomas, 99. 
Shylton, Henry, 84, 85. 
Shynglar, Philip, 82. 

Shynglar, John, 82. 

Simondes, William, 85. 

Skyllett, Alice, 99. 

Slowe, WUliam atte, 76, 77. 

Smalbroke, 87. 

Smalbroke, Eichard, 87, 98, 99, 100. 

Smalbroke, John, 89. 

Smallwood, 15. 

Smyth, John, 57, 64, 67, 69, 99. 

Smyth, Eoger, 82, 83. 

Smyth, William son of Eoger, 83. 

Smyth, John son of Eoger, 83. 

Smyth, John Couper, 83. 

Smyth, Eichard, 84. 

Smyth, Eobert, 93. 

Solemore, William, 98. 

Somery, John of, 28, 32. 

Sompnor, Thomas, 98. 

Spenser, Eobert the, 40 

Spenser, Eichard the, 40. 

Spurrier, Eobert, 99. 

Spycer, John, 78. 

Squyer, William, 80. 

Sterkey, John, 93. 

Stretton, Thomas of, 40, 41. 

Strettou, Eobert, 41, 53. 

Stretton, William, 80. 



108 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Sturmy, Laurence, 78. 
Sutton, Joliii of, 42. 
Swanne, Humfrey, 93, 95. 
Swexson, William, 95. 
Swyfte, Eicharde, 85, 97. 
iSwyfte, Hobert, 81. 
Symondes, Humfrey, 85, 86. 
Symondes, William, 86, 99. (See 

" Simondes.") 
Symons, 87. 
Syre, Thomas, 95. 



Taylor, Edward, 97. 
Tofte, Sir Edward, 89. 
Tolymoly, William Gest alias, 83. 
Tycito, William, 28, 31. 

V. 

Venton, Henry, 96. 

Verdon, David, 78. 

Vernon, Maria, 96, 97, 99. 

Verite, William, 36. 

Vessey (Vessie), John, 98, 99, 100. 

Veysey, John, 96, 97, 98, 100. 

Vyterre (Fitter), Thomas, 84. 

W. 

Walker, William, 87. 
Walker, Eichard, 99, 100. 
Walrond, Eichard servant of Eich- 
ard, 80, 81 



Walssh, Eichard, 87. 

Walshraan (Welchman), Meredith, 

80, 81. 
Walter, Thomas, 96. 
Walthevr, Seth, 95. 
Walton, Thomas, 98. 
Walton, Agnes, 98. 
Warde, John, 78. 
Warley, Eauf, 89. 
Waryng, Thomas, 92. 
Waterball, Wilham, 83. 
Welche, G-eorge, 88. 
Welche, Eichard, 88. 
Weley, John, 99. 
Weley, Eichard, 96. 
Weoley, Henry Cooke of, 80, 81. 
Whytworth, Eobert, 92 note, 93, 95. 
Windsor, John of, 40. 
Wombestrong, Ealph, 29, 31. 
Wragge, 34. 

Wylleys (Willies), John, 93. 
Wyllington, WiUiam, 99. 
Wylson, Henry, 99. 
Wyrley, Thomas of, 78. 
Wyrley, John of, 78, 80. 
Wytton, Thomas of, 40. 



Yates, 33. 

Yemons (Yemont), Thomas, 100. 

Yerdeley, Thomas, 80. 



JOHN EDWAKD TATLOE, PEIIfTEE, 
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS 



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